Not Just Another Cover Story
by celiacprincess
Summary: Zach's twin sister is forced to attend the Gallagher Academy, because of security reasons, and starts right when the exchange takes place at Blackthorne. Valerie deals with the regular new kid stuff, but on a higher level, thanks to her brother.
1. Chapter 1

For as long as I can remember, I've been known as the calm one in my family. My teachers were forever saying that I took the time to think things through, and every year I got that silly award for the highest grade. My brother was always mad about that; he figured since we were twins, we should share the award. HA. No way.

Anyway, despite supposedly being _calm_, when my mom told me that I wasn't going back to Kingston High in January, but I was transferring to some private school called the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, and during the spring semester they were doing an exchange with the Blackthorne Institute for Boys, my reaction was a very loud and very high—pitched scream. It would have been okay with me, except for one little problem.

That's where my brother goes to school.

So after my parents managed to calm me down, they explained that I really didn't have a choice. I couldn't stay in the public school system any longer; it just wasn't safe. With both my parents as spies, and Zach attending a spy school, I was considered a weak link, and that had to change. I hadn't thought about it that way, but it made sense. Zach was learning way more than I was, but every time he came home from boarding school, I had him help me catch up a little. Because of this, my parents and the Gallagher Academy Headmistress felt that I would be able to get caught up by senior year.

They also let me know that I wouldn't be going to the Gallagher Academy first; I'd go directly to Blackthorne with my brother. I'd be the only girl there for about a week, and then the rest of the girls would show up. This in mind, I made sure to pack a separate bag with books, paper, and other things to keep me busy. At the last minute (well, about ten minutes before we left), I found a bunch of plain t-shirts of all colors that I had gotten over the break. With them was all kinds craft material, such as fabric paint, bright colored bandanas, fancy material, fabric glue, spray glitter, and other little things. I threw everything in the duffle bag that my friends had decorated for me as a going away present, and added it to my pile of luggage. I already had four hand-decorated t-shirts, but I couldn't really wear them. For starters, Gallagher girls wore uniforms, (although I would end up changing out of them, as my mom pointed out). Also, the t-shirts were made for my old school. One had a "K" on it, one had an "S", one had a "2", and one had and exclamation point. (At pep rallies and games, I had been part of either "Kingston", "sophomores", our graduating year, or the end of "Kingston High Sophomores!"

Needless to say, I'd need to make new shirts.

***

I guess I was so consumed with the thought of new t-shirts, or I really am as scatterbrained as Zach says, but either way, I had to run back into the house three times to get stuff I'd forgotten. Each time, Zach would laugh, and point out that _he_ hadn't forgotten anything. How hard could it be, he kept asking, to pack up everything in your room except stuff like your bed, dresser, those huge collages on your wall, and a couple of outfits that you don't really like? Each time, I pointed out that I had never done this before, so I didn't know what I'd need. (The things I had forgotten were my sunglasses, an umbrella, and my watch. Zach made sure to point out that I wouldn't need a watch, since I had a cell phone, but Mom countered that I probably wouldn't use it much, since both schools were so well protected that the signal was blocked. I pretended to hyperventilate at this, and my parents and Zach cracked up.)

Finally we left. I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I had forgotten my camera, but it was in the bag with the t-shirts. As I settled into the backseat with my iPod in my ears and my cell phone in my lap, I thought about my now old school, friends, neighbors, bedroom, and about my now new school, friends, room, teachers, and how weird it would feel to go to the same school as my brother again. I thought about the girl Zach had mentioned on one of his recent visits home. Part of me was excited, and the other part was terrified. I hadn't been the new kid since sixth grade, because the highschool was grades six through twelve. It had been nice knowing everyone. I wondered if things would be the same.

I actually didn't know that our parents were spies until Blackthorne sent us a letter, saying that Zach was accepted. I didn't even know they had applied to Blackthorne. And I never before questioned why I didn't go to Gallagher. Now I started to. It was wierd, but I didn't want to ask my parents. I'd never been afraid to ask them anything else. Somehow, this was different. I reached into my bag and pulled out the manilla envelope that held the information about my new school. I leafed through it until I found what I was looking for.

_TO: VALERIE JANE GOODE_

_SUBJECT: WELCOME TO SPY SCHOOL_

_Hi, _

_I'm Cammie Morgan. My mom's the headmistress. She really doesn't know I'm writing this, or saving it to be printed with every new student package. Somehow, I think that if she finds out, she'll leave it. Anyway, I've been here a while, and I know what goes on here. EDITED TO ADD: Normally I would say don't worry about makeup, but well, we've had a few encounters with going to town and exchange trips, so bring makeup if you don't want to be seen without it. Boys aren't a big deal here, except lately. Be sure to know something about foreign languages before you get here, or you'll be way lost. Newbies, use your alone time in the mansion to learn foreign languages, organize your school stuff, and learn your way around the place. DON'T touch the sword, it can be painful. And if you're one of the few that are new but not in seventh grade, good luck catching up. Really, I mean good luck. Not sarcastically. Don't get on the bad side of people, and don't think you're way cool when you're not. _

_Need more advice? Just look for me. If you can find me, I'll give you advice. If not, you need practice. _

_Cammie _

I had read that letter about fifty times, trying to find a secret that wasn't typed. I think I was staring at it when I fell asleep.

**(A/N: Ohh, kay. I added some stuff to this chapter because, well, people were reading it only and then stopping. So I figured, hey, if I make this chappie better (And longer) maybe people will keep going. So I'm trying that. And by the way, I don't do disclaimers. I didn't come up with the Gallagher Girls, although it'd be great if I did. However, Valerie Goode, is mine. The rest will hopefully be longer. The end, thank you.) **


	2. Chapter 2

My parents have always said I was a heavy sleeper. I never heard "Santa" banging around in the kitchen, and three years ago, when two of my best friends decorated my room in the middle of the night for my birthday, I didn't even budge. I guess that's why Zach thought he'd get away with dumping a whole bottle of water on me as I slept. What he didn't count on was that I really was meant to be a spy, because, for the first time in my life, I woke up to the slightest movement. I opened my eyes to him holding the bottle over me. I could have died laughing at the look on his face when he saw that I was awake. Instead, I just smiled calmly, and said, "If I get wet, you'll get hurt."

Now, most boys who had been at spy school since seventh grade wouldn't have felt threatened, but Zach new better. I'd beaten up enough boys to know just where to hit him. He quietly and quickly put the lid back on the bottle and scooted back to the other side of the backseat. I sat up and looked around.

"Are we here?"

"Nah, almost. This is the security check… we have to pretend to be a normal boarding school, and they normally have something like this." He lowered his voice, even though we were the only car around, and Mom and Dad were outside, talking to the security guy. "Val, I'm not supposed to tell you this – none of the Gallagher girls are supposed to know. But you're my sister, and I want you to look smart in front of them. You'll be fine until the other girls get here. Then, on the first night during supper, we'll have a pop test. It's going to be a fake bomb drill, all the girls are going to freak out. If they're smart, they'll try to "disable" it, if not, they'll just scream while we, the guys, laugh. I want you to be one of the ones that looks for it."

I shook my head. "But since I _know_ that it's fake, it would be stupid to look for it. Why can't I just laugh with you guys?"

"Because then they'll know I told you. Val, just go along with it, okay? I'll even tell the other guys that you figured it out, so they won't laugh at you – you'll be part of the joke. Okay?"

I nodded. "Sure Zach." After a pause, "So what about that girl?"

His face went from sure and cocky to confused. "What girl?"

"That one you talked about when you came home… Cam? Was that her name?"

If I hadn't been his sister, I wouldn't have noticed the slight blush rising to his cheeks. But I was, so I did. And for the first time in my life, I ignored it. This time, I wanted an answer.

"Yeah… Cam. Cammie Morgan. She's our age, about your height, brown hair…" Zach trailed off. "What about her?"

"You like her." I stated. He knew that I knew this. I was just trying to get him to tell me what I wanted to know.

"Yeah…"

"You're my brother."

"Yeah…"

"ZACH! Stop being dumb. Do I have to like her? Is she going to like me? Is she going to _know_ that you're my brother? Your friends, are _they_ going to know? Answers, please."

"Val, calm down. No, you don't have to like her, yeah, she'll probably like you. She's smart enough, she'll figure it out. And my friends, well, you'll be the only girl there for a week, sure they'll know. You'll be fine, you'll fit in."

"Right..."

Our parents got back in the car, and Zach and I fell silent. I watched in amazement as the hills flattened and a huge mansion appeared. It wasn't a fancy mansion, it was just a building. A very _big_ building.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Zach looking at me. I turned to him and he smiled.

"What's up?" I asked under my breath.

"Just trying to picture how the Gallagher girls will look when they pull up in their limos or drop in by helicopter."

"They have a _helicopter_?!"

"Sure Val. I told you you'd fit right in." With that, he flashed me another smile and opened his door. I hadn't realized that we had stopped. I scrambled out too, and went around to the back to get my luggage. Zach was looking through his backpack for something that was obviously very small and very important. I was expecting something fancy, but what he pulled out of a case looked like a wire with a headphone ear bud on it. He stuck it in his ear, and snapped. I started to laugh – he looked so weird with that thing in his ear, and his backpack open with stuff spilling out of it, but he shushed me.

"Just got here, you?" He muttered.

"Huh?"

"Not talking to you" Zach hissed at me. I rolled my eyes and reached for my bag. Our parents had arranged for our stuff to be brought to our rooms, but there was some stuff I didn't trust anyone with. Like my camera. At my old school, my camera went _everywhere_ with me. I seriously had at least twenty pictures of everyone. One time, the principal had come to me asking to go through my camera because someone had written swear words on the wall in one of the stair wells, and they wanted to see about when it had happened. (They ended up catching the guy. Turns out, no one liked him anyway, so I was like the school hero for a week after he got kicked out.)

After I got my stuff out of the car, I looked around and sat down on my suitcase. Zach was still messing with his ear thing, muttering into it, and snapping. I couldn't wait to go up to my room, but I didn't know where to go. I hated waiting on my brother – he _had_ to be the slowest person on the face of the earth. I sat daydreaming on my suitcase for about half an hour before Zach snapped three times, and took the ear thing out of his ear.

"It's about time!" I joked as he turned around.

"Val, we've got a problem." I hadn't seen Zach so serious since the time he had told me that our cat ran away. (I cried for a week when he told me… and then the cat came back. I wanted to strangle him.) "The other girls are getting here in two days… And that pretend bomb thing I told you about, we have to move it up. It's gonna take a _lot_ of work, and it'll have to be done quick. Not all of the guys are here yet, so we're going to need your help." He paused. "I've got an ear piece for you, and I'll teach you how to use it. Okay?"

"Um… yeah, sure, whatever," I smiled as relief flooded his face. "Show me my room first, then I'll come with you to yours."

He nodded and we started toward the mansion, me taking pictures of everything. We hadn't gotten halfway across the lawn when a piercing siren went off. I screamed, shut my eyes and covered my ears, and Zach whipped his head around to look at the far corner of the building. After a second, he pulled my hands off my ears, and I opened my eyes. The siren was still going off, and I could just make out dark shapes on the roof of the building.

"What on earth…" Zach fumbled with his ear piece. I scanned the building and stifled a scream.

"Zach," I said as calmly as I could. "Look." I watched as he followed my finger and his eyes grew big.

**(A/N: Well, here's the second chapter. Remember, I own nothing except Val. Please take my poll, it'll determine how long the chapters are. I'll try to get the next chapter out by Monday or Tuesday, but I'm busy all weekend, so we'll see how it goes.) **


	3. Chapter 3

- Chapter Three -

"Wow."

Even in my panic mode, I was able to roll my eyes. Zach _never _reacted right. Like me, if I had seen a bunch of people coming over the roof of a supposedly safe school – one for _spies_, none the less, I would have totally freaked out. (Well, I did see them, but I'm the calm one, remember?) Anyway, I turned to see if our parents were still here, but they weren't. Great. Zach and I were on our own for this one.

On one side of the mansion, figures in dark clothing were coming over the roof (I hadn't figured out why they were wearing _dark_ clothes, it didn't really help with the blend-in process during the day…), and from the other side, more figures (I was guessing they were boys, considering it was a _boys_ school) were rappelling down the side. Zach had finally gotten his ear piece in his ear, but the siren was still going off, so I doubt he could hear anything. I looked around to see if the people were coming from the ground too, but it didn't seem like it. Turning my attention back to the building, the first group was wheeling something across the roof, and the second group had already reached the ground and was running toward us. My first reaction was to run the opposite way, but my brain kicked in and reminded me of the conversation Zach and I had had not too long ago.

"_Then, on the first night during supper, we'll have a pop test. It's going to be a fake bomb drill; all the girls are going to freak out. If they're smart, they'll try to "disable" it, if not, they'll just scream while we, the guys, laugh."_

Knowing Zach, he told me about that _knowing_ this would happen. He still wanted me to freak out, just not in front of the girls too. I started laughing.

"Val…?"

"Zach. Honestly. Is this one of those pop tests? You wanted me to freak out. Well… too bad. What am I supposed to do? Beat them all up? I don't think so."

Zach looked stunned for a minute. Then slowly, he smiled. "You're good. I should have known. You are related to _me_, after all."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. My brother could be _so_ conceited. The guys (by now I knew they were guys) had slowed down once they realized I wasn't freaking out. I started laughing again. If their "bomb drill" was anything like this, it would be the Gallagher girls that were laughing, not the Blackthorne boys. The boys got closer, and one by one they were pulling their dark masks off. One of the boys called out to Zach.

"So this is your sister."

"Yep. Val, say hi to the best teenage spies around."

I smiled but didn't say anything. I had figured it out by now that I was going to have to stay on my toes for a _long_ time – if the other boys were anything like my brother, which I knew they were, they would use anything they could to get the upper hand. If I had said hi, they would have jumped on it, saying that I admitted that the boys were better than the girls. Stupid, yet enough for them.

"Aren't you going to say hi?" The other boy asked.

"Nope. I'm Valerie, in case you didn't get that." I stuck out my hand. The boy looked surprised.

"She's good," he said to Zach. "I'm Grant." He shook my hand. The rest of the guys introduced themselves without any prompting – David, Mark, Chris, Lance, and Jake. I raised my eyes and scanned the building. _Where was the first group?_ I thought. I think Jake noticed, but he didn't say anything. However, Grant did.

"Whatcha looking for?"

I lowered my eyes to meet his. "The other group."

They all laughed. "What other group?" Grant teased.

"Oh shut up." I snapped. Zach's eyes got a little wider, and he stepped forward.

"Val…"

"No. You shut up too! I _know_ what's going on; you guys are trying to trick me. Well, it's not going to happen. There was another group of boys on the roof, dragging something. What happened to them?"

They looked at each other, and Grant smiled. "I'm sure they'll turn up." As he turned to my brother, I heard him mutter, "She reminds me a little of Cammie." Zach smacked him on the arm, and Grant shut up.

"C'mon, Val. Let's go inside." Zach picked up his bag, and I picked up mine. We started inside, but I hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when I heard a loud boom. I looked up and saw a ton of smoke coming from the roof. I screamed, and Grant ran up beside Zach.

"Where did that come from?!" He shouted.

"Dunno. Val?" Zach looked over at me.

"It was the first group of boys, the ones that didn't come down. They were wheeling something across the roof. I thought you saw…"

"Fudge." Zach muttered. "Okay. Val, just where did this group go?"

I glanced at the roof, but I couldn't really see anything thanks to all the smoke. Squinting, I scanned the top of the building. "There." I pointed to the far edge of the roof, where Zach's friends had come down. "That's them. We're about to meet them." I put my bag down and made a move to start walking that way, but Zach grabbed my hand and pulled me back. "What?"

"Val, you have good eyes and instincts, but you haven't been trained. Let us handle this one. Okay?" He muttered in my ear.

"Zach…" I protested, but he cut me off.

"Sis, please. I don't want you to get hurt."

I sighed. "Fine. But if anything happens to you, I'm gonna come help you." Zach nodded, but Grant scoffed.

"Right. You'll _really_ be a big help."

I glared at him, but Zach pulled him away before I could say anything. I watched as my twin and his friend run across the lawn (which I couldn't help but notice was really pretty, for a boys' school) and meet up with their classmates. All the boys seemed really close. I wondered if I would ever be that close to the girls at the Gallagher Academy, but quickly pushed the thought out of my mind and concentrated on the guys. The group on the roof had made it to the ground. Half of them were running toward the building, and the other half were running toward my brother and his friends. Almost on instinct, I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of everything – the Blackthorne boys, the other group of boys, the mansion, and the lawn. Much later, I realized that I had watched everything unfold through the screen on my camera. From where I was standing, both groups were in the view of the camera. I watched as one group of the roof-people (they apparently _weren't_ on the good side) reached my brother and his friends, and the other group reached the doors of the mansion. I held my breath as the first group clashed with the boys that would be my classmates for the rest of the year. I groaned as the second group slipped quietly inside the mansion and I lost sight of them. They had gotten into a top-secret boarding school that was supposed to have excellent security.

I was about to zoom in on Zach, when I noticed that there was still a dark figure by the side of the building. I zoomed in on him, and felt my eyes widen.

They hadn't all gotten in. There was one still outside. He was standing very still, watching someone.

That someone was me.

**(A/N: Well, I'm not super happy with it, but it took the story where I wanted it to go. Let me know what you think. Am I keeping Zach in character? It's kinda hard, because we didn't get much of his character, and what we got kept changing! Lol. Anyway, the next chapter should be out before Saturday. I know it's a long way off, but I'm going to go ahead and write a middle chapter (I'm off all week!). I don't usually do that, but I'm going to try it. So… Saturday is my goal for Chapter 4. Please take my poll. Thanks.) **

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	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So, I'm sorry this took so long to get out, I was working on NaNoWriMo. Now that's over, and I'll start updating more :D **

Slowly I lowered my camera. My (current) worst fear was confirmed – whoever that was, was looking at me. And not moving.

It wasn't a good sign.

"VAL!" My brother called from the jumble of people. That wasn't good either. Now this guy knew my name. He made a move to come toward me, but stopped mid-stride. I saw his eyes flint back and forth between Zach and me. I could almost hear him wondering if we were related. He must have decided that we were, because he made a beeline for Zach.

Which I thought was a total and complete mistake on his part, because, with my camera still clicking away, I ran toward him. Later I realized that this part was the only part that I _didn't_ have on film, and unfortunately, it was the best part of the whole fight thing.

I reached Zach before the guy did, and blocked my twin. The guy in black slowed down, and Zach pushed me out of the way. I stumbled for a minute, and then pushed toward the supposedly bad guy. He was watching Zach, and was surprised when I ran into him at full speed. He stumbled, and Zach yelled at me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He called. "You'll get yourself _killed!!_"

"Relax, I'm not stupid." The guy I had run into was straightening up, and instinctively I punched him in the stomach. "I'm a big girl, Zach."

"Yeah, but you're my sister." He replied, coming up beside me and giving the guy another punch, one that knocked him down. Zach pulled some rope out of his pocket ('What the heck!?' I thought.) and tied the guy's hands behind his back. "Oh well. We're finished with him." Zach turned to me and his smile faded. "What's wrong?"

"Um… There were a whole bunch of guys that ran inside…" I said. Zach groaned.

"Great. Just great. Guys! We need to move. Check everything… important." He improvised, nodding to the guy that was tied up. "Go!"

I took off, but Zach caught my sleeve. "Woah, not you." I protested, but Zach shook his head. "No way, sis. You're not trained enough."

"Zach! I totally helped hurt this guy! C'mon. I don't want to look stupid in front of the girls when _they_," I nodded my head toward the building, meaning the boys inside of it, "tell of how they defeated the intruders." I shook my head. "You guys wouldn't even _know_ they were here if it wasn't for me." I pointed out.

Zach started to say something, but I put my finger to my lips. The guy was still out cold (Zach hit him harder than I thought!), but I noticed something. I reached down and pulled a little tiny hearing device thing off of his right ear. I held it up and Zach's eyes got wide. He muttered a curse word, and I gave him a nasty look. He playfully rolled his eyes before taking the ear thing and putting it on his ear. I watched his expression go from playful to serious to panicked to that calm look that mom's sometimes get when they see that their toddler has just colored all over the freshly painted white walls, and also spilled ketchup over the white rug.

That scary type of calm look.

Needless to say, it freaked me out seeing it on my brother. _I'm _the calm one in the family, not Zach. He gets super mad and storms off to his room.

Okay, exaggeration. But last Christmas when Mom and I sent him a pair of Hello Kitty boxers (don't ask how we found those), he sent us a picture of the most annoyed face. It was great. We enlarged it, had it framed, then took a picture of it and sent it back to Zach. (We won that war!)

Anyway, I was panicking in my calm sort of way, and Zach turned and started towards the building. I ran after him, and he took my arm. Silently, he mouthed to stay quiet, and I nodded. They say that the whole twin telepathy thing is real, and trust me, it is. I'm not that great of a lip reader, but I knew what Zach was saying. I could come, but it was at my own risk.

We got to the building, and Zach peaked inside. There was nothing. No boys, no guys in black, not even any tables or, I don't know, _furniture_. Odd. Zach motioned for me to follow him, and he crept inside. I followed, turning the flash off on my camera and shutting the click sound off. We slipped up the stairs (because the door that led into the hall way was locked, and the lock didn't look broken), and down the hall. Zach glanced into every classroom window that we passed, and I took silent pictures. _Nice way to get a tour_, I thought to myself.

When we turned the corner, I nearly had a heart attack. There was one guy in black, standing there, waiting. Zach hit him from the back, and knocked him down. I was watching the screen on my camera again, and it was like slow motion: Zach getting behind the guy, hitting him, the guy turning, the look of surprise on his face, Zach hitting him again, the guy falling, and falling, and finally Zach bending over him getting the earpiece.

I could hear noises coming from the door at the very end of the hall, and I quietly asked Zach what room it was. He grimaced, and told me that it was the gym; the worst possible room for the fight to be taking place, except maybe for the Chemistry labs. (I mean, weapons and workout items used specifically for training us to fight, or chemicals. Knowing the basic chemicals my old Chemistry labs had, and knowing that this school definitely had more deadly chemicals, and more of said chemicals, I'd choose the gym any day.) We ran towards the gym door, and Zach opened it, motioning for me to stay back. He slipped through the door, and I held it open with my foot and stuck my camera around the door. Through the screen, I saw Zach head to the railing (the door led to the loft above the actual gym) and duck suddenly. He turned towards me and nodded his head. I slipped into the gym and propped a weight against the door, keeping it cracked open just enough so it didn't lock. I bent down and joined my twin. Finally, I dared to look over the railing, and almost screamed at what I saw.


	5. Chapter 5

Actually, I probably would have screamed, but Zach put his hand over my mouth and pulled me back down. He held me there for a minute, whispering in my ear that I had to be quiet, and that we should take another look. I nodded, and he removed his hand and started crawling towards the other end of the loft. I followed, and we came to a section of the loft where the view of the gym below was blocked off. Zach stood up and I did the same. He poked his head around the pillar thing, and I put my camera around the other side of it. The Blackthorne boys were clashing with the guys in black, but luckily, the only ones that were on the ground and tied up were in black.

I sighed, but Zach shook his head. Pulling his head back to where it was hidden, he told me that there were some guys missing. Guys meaning his friends. My eyes got wide, and I clicked my camera to View mode. I zoomed in and went through the list of names I remembered. Grant and Jake were missing.

At this point, Zach told me to put my camera up, so unfortunately I have no pictorial proof of the following events. Fortunately, it was my first spy related adrenaline rush ever, so it'll probably be burned in my memory forever.

Zach flipped over the railing, and disappeared. Horrified, I did the same, and found myself in a little hiding spot. I relaxed, figuring that my twin knew what he was doing, but when I got a good look at his face, I could see that he was bleeding slightly. He laughed at my shocked expression.

"Relax, sis. It's nothing. I misjudged the opening and hit the wall." At this, I couldn't help but laugh.

It was a very big mistake on my part, because the nearest guy in black heard me and looked over.

Zach muttered another curse word, but I didn't have time to glare at him. I was too busy hopping out of the hiding spot and running at the guy full speed. I hit him, knocking him over, and ran towards the next guy, leaving Lance to deal with the first guy. The second guy was prepared, and didn't fall over. Instead, he blocked my arm, grabbed it, and twisted me around. I used my elbow to jab him in the stomach, (I'd grown up around Zach and his friends, all who decided to try and beat me up or attack me (playfully, of course). I got good at defending myself) and twisted around at the same time. What the guy didn't know was that I had the coolness of being double jointed, so the awkward arm position didn't hurt. The guy kept twisting my arm, and finally I started laughing.

"Dude. My arm bends that way." A look of confusion passed over his face, and then he tried twisting it the other way. "Yeah, it goes that way too." I took advantage of his shock to push him backwards with everything I had, and he stumbled. One of the guys (Chris, I think) took over, and I spun around, looking for my brother. I spotted him fighting this one guy, who looked like he could eat Zach for lunch (scary times ten). I ran over to him, and snuck up behind the guy. Zach saw me, and nodded ever so slightly. I jumped on the guy's back, and he spun around. Zach took the time to hit the guy multiple times before I jumped off and joined him. Right when I punched the guy, I noticed a door move. Someone was behind it. My brother had seen it too, and nodded towards it, letting me know that he could handle the guy. I ran towards the door, and slowly pushed it open. It led into a dim corridor. I was slightly surprised that Zach had let me go, but I decided to take the chance. I found the light switch, and was about to flip it on until I realized that in the movies they always used flashlights. I fished around in my bag (which, yes, I was still carrying) and found the one I had stuck in there. I clicked it on and started down the hallway. About halfway down it, I heard a muffled thump coming from one of the rooms. I slid closer to the wall, and sadly realized that I had no weapon of any sort, unless you counted my flashlight (which I didn't). I tried the first door I came too, and found it unlocked. I pushed it open, and listened before slipping into the room. The thumping noises were definitely coming from this room, but what was making them?

I had to admit that I was a little freaked out. I mean, it was my _first_ time doing anything like this, I'd had no training, and it was real. As in, not a test. Or a joke. Real real.

I bet you'd be freaking out too.

I took a deep breath and let my natural calm self take control again. I knew nothing, so I was fairly safe. (Or so I hoped.) Zach was a big kid, he could take care of himself, and he'd come find me as soon as he could. I found the light switch for the room and flipped it on, preparing to squint against the light. It came on, and died immediately. I sighed and turned my flashlight on again. The dead lights couldn't be a good sign, and I knew I needed to get out of there as fast as I could. The only thing that kept me in that room was the thought that _maybe_, just maybe, Grant and Jake were in here somewhere.

I heard the thumping noise again, this time really close to me. Like too – close – for – comfort close. I aimed the flashlight beam in the direction of the thump (down and to the right), and for the second time in less than an hour, almost screamed. (Although this time, I stopped myself just in time. Lucky me, because Zach wasn't there to cover my mouth.)

**A/N: Okay, so this one got out quick! Hopefully the next few will… I've got "testing" Wednesday through Friday, but really I'm sitting it the commons, sitting in a classroom, or leaving early! :D Thank heaven for exemptions because of benchmarks. WOO! *ahem* Anyways… Review please! (I post way faster with 5+ reviews on the most current chapter) Lots of love, celiacprincess.**


	6. Chapter 6

I shook my head, trying to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. The closest noisemaker to me was Grant – tied up with duct take over his mouth. Then there was Jake, who was the same, only he was knocked out. A little farther down were two other figures. I bent down and slowly peeled the tape off Grant's mouth, and started on the knots. I got the first one surprisingly quick, and Grant was able to take it from there. I pointed my flashlight beam towards Jake, but Grant whispered that he'd take care of him. I slowly made my way towards the other figures, being as quiet as I could. The first one was knocked out, but the second one was waking up. I grabbed a rag from the nearest lab table and wrapped it around his eyes, like a blindfold. I found a roll of pink duct tape (how cool!) and reinforced the ropes holding his hands and feet together, and connected his hands to the floor with a couple pieces (it couldn't hurt). I did the same thing to the other guy, blindfold and all. By the time I was done, Grant had untied himself and was working on Jake. I went over to them and helped Grant, and we woke Jake up (it wasn't the easiest thing in the world, I can tell you that). Grant and I decided that we should just leave the two guys in the lab, and come back with other Blackthorne boys. Jake wasn't all there yet, so Grant helped him along the hallway. I locked the door to the lab behind me, and, taking the pink duct tape with me, followed the boys down the hall.

"So, what happened, exactly?" I asked in a whisper as I caught up with them.

"Well, we ran in here after those guys, and they weren't in the foyer. Jake ran into the gym, and I followed him. The rest of the guys followed me, but by the time they got past the flood of bad guys, we were gone. They had no choice but to stay and fight. Jake and I knocked the guys out pretty fast, and tied them up, but a couple others came in and got us. We didn't see where they went, but I'm guessing they went back to the gym."

I nodded, and then sighed. "I wonder how Zach's doing."

"Probably fine. He's good." He smiled at me, and I returned it as best I could.

"Thanks. Hey," I paused, wondering if I should ask Grant something personal. I didn't really know him, but still…

"Yeah?" He prompted, and I decided to go for it.

"What do you know about Zach and a girl named Cammie?"

Grant laughed. I shushed him, remembering that we were possibly in danger, and he started laughing silently.

"What's so funny?!" I asked.

"Zach and Cammie. Wow. Well, Cam's coming in a couple days, you'll meet her. I can tell you this, Zach doesn't talk about his feelings much. But as his best friend, I think he likes her. Not too sure though…" Grant trailed off. "She likes him though. Or, we think she does. She's not called Chameleon for nothing."

I nodded, and opened to ask a question that was erased from my mind a second later when we heard a noise that seemed to shake the whole building. I looked at Grant and Jake, who had come to his senses by now, and we ran towards the door I had come in at. Grant slipped through the door first, then Jake, then me. I didn't know what I would find, but I was fearing the worst. Of course, having _no_ experience with explosions, I had no idea what just happened, but Grant and Jake did. By their expressions, it wasn't good.

I thought about pulling my camera out, but decided that I'd need both of my hands in the event I was, oh I don't know, _attacked_. So the camera stayed where it was, and I ran up behind the boys. The gym was full of smoke, but we still heard movements that suggested a struggle. The lights flickered and then died, so I clicked on my flashlight. (What's up with all these light failures?!) I ran around the gym to the little hiding place Zach and I had fallen into. Sure enough, there was my brother, with a bloody lip and the beginnings of a black eye, and two other Blackthorne boys that I didn't recognize. I slid into the hiding spot next to my brother and asked what happened.

Zach took a deep breath. "Not too long after you left, we started to get the upper hand. We thought we'd win, easy. Then one of them found the testing switch." He noticed the confused look on my face, and explained. "It's a huge wall mounted board with all sorts of commands. One is a flood, one is a tornado, and one is an explosion. It simulates different disasters or occurrences we might experience. They thought it was real, so they, of course, pressed _bomb_, and ducked. We knew that it wasn't, but…"

"But what?"

"We don't experience the bomb one until this year. We had no idea what was coming." He shook his head.

"What happened?"

"Glass shards flew everywhere, smoke started pouring out of air vents, and the room got really hot, like a fire… It was pretty bad. They suffered too, but we're just waiting for the smoke to clear so we can actually help the guys that stayed out there."

"Where are the teachers?!" I asked, shocked at the severity of the situation.

"Who knows. In town, maybe." He shrugged. "They're never here when we get here."

I shook my head. "And when are the girls supposed to come?"

Zach's eyes got wide. "I'm not too sure… But soon."

As he said that, an alarm started going off. The smoke cleared, and I screamed. The wall was opening up, and adults were streaming in. Zach let out a satisfied "YES!" and I turned to him.

"Huh?"

"Those are the teachers. We're good now." Zach jumped out of the hiding spot without another word, and ran over to Grant, who was pushing one bad guy to the ground. With Zach's help, they got him tied up, and a teacher took him away.

I could hear the sound of a helicopter, and ran to the open wall. It opened to the lawn that Zach and I had walked across to get into the school. Sure enough, a helicopter was landing, and the teachers ran towards it with the tied up bad guys. I sighed, turned around, and was promptly hit by a quick moving guy in black trying to run away. I grabbed his arm, and pushed him to the ground. Zach ran over and punched him, and I surveyed the gym. By now, there were only Blackthorne boys and teachers in there; all the bad guys were gone. I smiled, relieved that nothing too bad had happened.

That's when it hit me: we had left two guys tied up in one of the Chemistry labs. I ran over to Grant, and we ran to one of the teachers. Grant told him which room it was, and two teachers ran through the doors towards the classrooms. Less than a minute later, they came back.

Alone.

"They're not there!" the female teacher told us, panic in her voice. I had always thought teachers, especially _spy_ teachers, were supposed to be calm. "They could be anywhere." She turned to me, and explained. "There is way too much sensitive material in this building for two of our enemies to be loose in here." I felt my eyes get wide at the realization.

We had better find those guys, and fast. Preferably before they blow up a section of the mansion. Just, you know, a suggestion.

**A/N: So, I'm very sorry this one was suckish. ): I'm making vocabulary cards for 100 words, because I have a test Tuesday, and well, I'm making an 88 in that class. I'm hoping to bring it up to a 90 at least! /: Wish me luck. At least I don't have to take ANY finals!! I just have to sit in a classroom (or gym) for three "tests". But no actual test taking. So I'm very happy. So happy, that if I get ****at least 6 reviews on this chapter****, I'll update before Monday! So go review. :D **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you to the four people that reviewed. Now, I said I wanted six reviews, so you guys get a major cliff hanger. Want the next one? Review like crazy. 6+ gets it posted before Tuesday. 8+ gets it posted before Monday. 10+ gets it posted the second I finish it, which will probably be tomorrow (Sunday). I hope this one is better than the last chapter. Check my profile for updates.**

Zach shook his head and pulled what looked like an iPod Touch out of his pocket.

"HEY!" I cried, temporarily forgetting that we were technically under attack. "How'd you get that?! I've wanted that since it came out."

Zach looked at me and laughed. "Sis. It's not really an iTouch. Look." He touched the screen a few times and held it toward me. On the screen was the blueprints of the building (well, it was _a_ building, I'm just assuming that it was this one) with a huge red dot in what I knew to be the gym and a couple little dots in one of the rooms down the hall from where we were. There was also some large dots outside.

"A heat detector!" I cried with sudden realization.

Zach nodded. "Bingo. And I've got the location of the missing captives." His terminology made me laugh, but the other guys took it just as seriously.

Grant pulled out his identical iTouch look-alike, checked it, and nodded. "Let's go." The guys took off in the direction of the door, and I followed then, hoping that we wouldn't all die. (Valid hope, right?) They did that cool thing you see in movies where they go through the doors and slide along the walls. Usually they're holding guns, and like, point them into the doorways as they come to them. Well, this was just like that, only they didn't have guns, only fake iPod Touch things. I had my camera, and took a picture of them. Zach looked annoyed for a second, and then shook his head, smiling. Grant smiled too, and I took a picture of him.

Suddenly, Zach (who was at the front), stopped short. He touched the screen a few times, and I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Curious, I pulled it out. It was from Zach, but not the number I knew. I looked over at him, and he waved his touch thing. That's when it clicked. Not only were they heat detectors, they had a text messaging feature as well. They probably had an audio and video feed, because I noticed a headphone outlet. I decided that I wanted one. Like seriously.

FROM: Zach

Subjects located, room 129. Proceed with caution. Mission: Take them down without letting them harm anything. Leave searching for the teachers. Val – STAY BACK!

I frowned. That was no fun. I looked at my twin and rolled my eyes. My phone vibrated again. I realized that they must all be connected, because I hadn't given my number to anyone here.

FROM: Grant

Got it. Ouch on the room. Val, really. Don't come in.

I looked up at him. "Not cool," I mouthed. He just winked before following my brother into the room. I stood outside waiting, and heard a few thumps inside the room. I aimed my camera around the door, but it was too dark to see anything. I gave up, and replied to a text from my mom, telling her that we had gotten in okay. It wasn't true, but oh well. I had a feeling that lying was part of this spying stuff. Finally Zach came out of the room, dragging someone's feet. Grant followed, with the shoulders of an unconscious man in black. Two other guys were bringing the second bad guy, and I ran down the hall and held the door open for them. The teachers took them from the guys when we got into the gym, and Zach and I went to get our stuff from the front lawn (yeah, it was _still_ sitting there!).

"So Val," Grant started, picking up my bag, "Have you met the girls yet?" I shook my head and followed him and my twin into the mansion. "Oh." Grant turned towards me. "Really?"

"Yep. Think I'll like them?"

Grant smiled and Zach laughed. "Well we'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?" Zach replied.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I guess we will. When are they getting here?" I asked again.

"Tomorrow." Grant said immediately. Zach looked at him. "What?!"

"Nothing. Bet you don't know what time." He challenged.

"Afternoon."

"The afternoon's not a _time_. They're getting here at four."

"How do you know that?" I asked my brother.

He pointed to himself. "Spy." I rolled my eyes again as we came to a door. "Right. Val, here's your room. I have no idea who you're staying with, but I'm sure you'll have fun."

With that, Grant set my bag down, tipped his invisible hat, and they took off. I opened the door with a key I found in my pocket (What the heck?! Where'd that come from?), and took my bag inside. My suitcase was already on one of the beds, so I figured it was mine. All the beds looked the same, and it was on the end. _Whatever,_ I thought. _If someone wants this bed, I'll move._ I thought about unpacking, and decided I'd do it later. Zach showed up in the doorway (which I had left open), and told me to follow him. I did so, and we ended up at his room.

Inside, I found Grant and a kid named Jonas. Zach told me that they were roommates, and luckily for them, it was only the three of them. Most rooms had four, like mine probably would. It was the same girls I'd be rooming with at the Gallagher Academy. I asked how he knew this, and once again, he pointed at himself and said, "Spy." I wondered if that was a line he used often.

I followed them down to the dining room. They talked among themselves until we were halfway down the third flight of stairs, when Zach stopped and turned suddenly. "Val. Here." He handed me a box. I looked at him, and raised my eyebrows. "Open it." He said before turning around. They walked off, leaving me standing on the stairs. I did what he said and opened it. Sitting inside was one of those iTouch look alike things. I noticed that mine was slightly different from the boys', but figured that it was more girly. I threw the box into the nearest trash can after making sure it was empty, and started playing with the device. Grant had told me that it was called a Touch (oh, _real_ clever, guys. How original.), and mine was equipped with a heat detector, internet, text messaging (to the boys' devices and to cell phones. I made a mental note to program my number into the phone, because otherwise it would show up as private – the device was untraceable), music, a calendar, and who knows what else.

I found the dining room no problem (okay, fine. I cheated and used the Touch's blueprint feature to find it. But still), and went over to sit in between Zach and Grant. They (I suspected it was _Grant_, not Zach, but oh well) had saved it for me, and it made me feel welcome. After a while, Jonas got up and headed toward the kitchen. I followed him, and the look on my face caused him to laugh.

"It's not that great, Val." He said.

"For real? This is cool!" It was just like a buffet, only with way more choices. I got a bowl of spaghetti and put it on my tray. Along the line, I found a Caesar salad and a Sprite. Jonas had waited for me, and when I got to the end of the line, he picked up his tray and started back to the table. I looked around, and realized that, unlike all other buffets, this one didn't make you pay for it. _Well duh,_ I thought. _It's lunch. They're just cutting out the whole serving part. Pretty smart on their part._

As I sat down, Zach looked at my tray. "Nice, Val. You found your favorite foods right away." I nodded, and he laughed. It wasn't his normal laugh, though. It was like he was trying to sound mysterious or something. I gave him a strange look. He gave me a half grin, and I rolled my eyes and started on my spaghetti.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and for dinner I decided on chicken sticks and mashed potatoes, and Zach made another comment about it. I had a feeling it would become a habit of his, and chose to ignore it. That night, I turned in early, not wanting to watch some scary movie that they insisted on playing at loud volume.

I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow, and woke up when an alarm on my Touch thing went off. I hadn't even set it, so it must have been a prank by my brother. I scolded myself for not being more careful – I knew he liked to play pranks, and what better place to do it than at a spy school.

Anyway, since I was up, I showered and got dressed. I headed down to the dining room and got some French toast sticks, and took them back to my room to eat. Just as I was finishing, my Touch thing (which I had decided to name Turtle; don't ask why) vibrated. I picked it up, checking the time (9:24, if you were wondering), and read the message.

FROM: Unknown

Are you Valerie?

I hit Reply, and typed _Yes._ Less than a minute later, I received another message.

FROM: Unknown

Good. Go outside and wait by the front doors of the Blackthorne Institution. Don't tell anyone. We'll see you in a few minutes.

Curious, I took my plate back to the dining room and then went outside. Sure enough, two minutes later, I heard the distant whirr of a helicopter, and ninety seconds later (yes, I counted), a one was landing in the same spot the one yesterday had. I realized that there was a hidden landing pad there, and started toward the helicopter. The door opened, and I started laughing.


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N: Here you go! Thank you for the reviews! :D Can we keep it up? 8+ gets you the next chapter soon. Very soon. Thank you to ****GrlWithoutAName**** for giving me a very fun idea (: You're right, it is funny. I hope I did an okay job of putting it into the story, but I had over 900 words written when I got your review. Thanks, celiacprincess) **

The girls had arrived! Zach was wrong by six hours and thirty six minutes. The first one off the helicopter was holding a Touch just like Turtle. She was followed by a girl with dark skin, one that had an unfortunate sunburn, one that I recognized as Macey McHenry, and a handful of others. Only the first four started toward me. The rest stayed on the ground, helping to unload luggage.

"Valerie?" The first one asked.

I nodded.

"I'm Cammie. This is Bex," She motioned to the one with dark skin. "Liz," The one with the sunburn. "And Macey."

"Hi. Um… Who sent me those messages?" I had no less that a hundred questions, but that was the first one.

"I did." Cammie said with a smile. "Well, it was from my phone." She held out the Touch. "Did you get yours?"

"Huh?" I felt pretty stupid, but it was kind of too much to handle.

"The phone we sent you. It looks almost exactly like the guys' Touch things. Only ours is a cell phone too. We sent you one. I'm guessing you got it, because you replied, and showed up here."

I pulled out Turtle. "This?" Cammie nodded. "Oh, I didn't realize it was from you guys. I thought it was just a girly version of what the guys have."

Cammie laughed. "That's what it started as. Then we got a hold of the designs, changed them to look better, and added a ton of features. Like the phone part. The guys don't have it. Just texting. And we've got an alarm, calendar, and internet."

"So wait, they just have like, a heat thing and texting?" I asked.

"And blueprint access. Oh, and it's an audio and video feed." I nodded. I had figured that one out earlier. "The guys' don't have music or a non-video camera. Ours is called a Target. Don't ask me why."

I laughed. "Okay. Well, thanks!" I smiled, and she returned it. "So, are you four in a room together?"

Cammie nodded. "Which room are you in?"

"Four twelve."

"Oh, that's with Anna, Courtney, and Kim. You'll have fun in there." The girl named Bex said. I hoped she was serious.

"Cool. Are you guys hungry?" I checked my Target (I had decided to stop calling it Turtle for a little while). "We can still catch breakfast. I'm not sure if the guys are up though…"

"OH!" Liz said. "Sorry about setting your alarm so early. We wanted to make sure you were up when we got here. The time we passed along was four, but…"

"Plans change." Macey said. She smiled. "Did you hear about the four o'clock arrival?"

"It's no biggie." I told Liz. "I'm glad you woke me up. And yeah, I heard about it. Zach told me."

"He did?" Cammie asked, and then shrugged. "He fell for it." I couldn't help but notice that she acted different when we were taking about him, but I shrugged it off.

"Yep. I can't wait to laugh at him. He thought he was all cool. He pointed at himself and said, 'Spy'."

"He told me that a few times." She said with a smile. We started walking back toward the mansion. "So you've met him?"

"Met him?!" I laughed. "He's my twin brother."

Her eyes got wide, and she stopped and turned to me. "Really?"

"Yeah…" I nodded. "OMG, _you're_ Cammie!" It was her turn to laugh, but I continued. "He talked about you a little when he got home. Sorry, it just clicked. I'll wake him up if you want me to."

"Let's eat first." Bex said, cutting Cammie off. "No reason for them to see us eat." She winked at me, and slowed down ever so slightly. I let Liz, Macey, and Cammie get ahead of us, and Bex turned to me. "Cammie likes him. A lot. But she won't admit to it. She'd totally want to see him this second, but it's best if we were here and settled before they woke up. This whole trip is a rematch for us." I nodded, and she said one last thing on the subject before we caught up with the others. "And you're with us now. Okay?"

I nodded, and then led them into the dining room. It was still empty, as I knew it would be. My brother never got up before eleven when he didn't have to, and he had been up late. Cammie got waffles, Liz and Bex grabbed eggs, and Macey shared my taste and chose the French toast sticks. We sat down, and the other girls trailed in. I got up and introduced myself to them, and pointed toward the buffet thing. Minutes later, a girl sat down across from Macey (who was to my right) and looked at me.

"So you're my new roommate."

"Kim?"

She nodded, and looked a bit surprised. "You remembered?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty good with names."

"Oh. That'll come in handy." She smiled, and turned to Liz, who was across from me. "So, what's with the sunburn?"

Liz groaned, and Bex, Cammie, and Macey laughed. "Same thing as last year… Don't fall asleep by a pool in Alabama."

I smiled, but felt sorry for her. The sunburn was pretty bad. "I've got some Aloe Vera in my room, if you want some."

She turned to me and smiled. "Thanks, Val."

"No problem." I looked around and saw that Cammie, Liz, Macey, and Bex were pretty much done eating. "C'mon, I'll get it for you." I wasn't about to say that we were going to go wake up my brother and his friends… Too many girls would hear and freak out.

We started up the stairs, and everyone except Cammie decided they wanted to go straight to their room. Cammie shrugged and told them she'd catch up later. We walked together until we came to the point where they turned. I directed them in the direction of room four ten, and Cammie and I headed toward my brother's room. I put my finger to my lips when we got to the boys' door. I knocked, and a sleepy eyed Grant opened the door.

"Wha—Val? What are you doing here?" He mumbled.

"I came to see you guys… Is Zach up yet?"

"Uh… Zach!" He called into the room. "Yeah… He'll be out in a second. What's going on?"

"I have someone I'd like you to meet." I smiled as my brother showed up in the door.

"Val, what on earth are you… Oh hey, Gallagher Girl. We meet again."

"Hey Zach. Nice pjs." She laughed. I smiled as my twin blushed ever so slightly.

"Thanks. Want to come in for a minute?"

"Um…" Cammie looked at me, and I nodded.

"I've got to pee." I announced, walking past Zach and into the bathroom.

"So you met Val," I heard Zach say as I shut the door.

"Yep. She must have gotten all the cool genes. I expected her to be more like you, since you guys _are_ twins and all."

"How'd you know we were twins?" Zach asked, and I stifled a laugh. I stayed right outside the door. I _had_ to hear how this would end.

Through the crack in the door, I saw Cammie point to herself. "Spy," She said with a smile.

"Riiight." Zach said, rolling his eyes. I figured that he couldn't handle someone else using his line. Too bad for him. I waited for a second, then flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and walked back into the room. Cammie smiled at me, and we told Zach we were leaving. Once we were safely in the hall, Cammie turned to me.

"Please tell me you heard that." She whispered.

I nodded.

"Great. I've got a witness now, in case I ever need one." She smiled.

I laughed. "He's used that line on me like twice since I've been here. Want to see your room?"

She nodded, and we headed down the hall. We made it as far as the place where Liz, Bex, and Macey had turned the opposite way that Cammie and I had, when we heard a loud crash coming from downstairs. Cammie and I looked at each other, and I shook my head.

"This can't be good." I muttered. We started down the stairs, and heard footsteps behind us. I turned to see Zach and Grant running up behind us.

"What just happened?" My twin asked.

"No idea." I replied, and he made a face. The four of us ran down the stairs until we reached the foyer.

I opened my mouth to comment, but Cammie said exactly what I had been thinking.

"Uh oh."


	9. Chapter 9

"You've got that one right." I said with a sigh. The huge glass case that was build into the foyer wall was shattered. By the looks of it, it wasn't the only thing that had been smashed. There was just too much glass for that to have been the only thing destroyed.

"Okay, deep breath." Cammie said. "What else is on the ground, besides glass?"

I stood on my tiptoes, and peered over the railing. "Nothing." I said after a long pause.

"Great. Just great." She replied, starting down the stairs. Zach and Grant followed her, but I stayed put. As my twin had told me over and over, I had good eyes and instincts, but no training. I looked around, and my eyes landed on the ground in front of the case. I noticed that the glass wasn't covering the ground evenly, but smeared around. My mind drifted back to when I was eight, and I was holding a stack of plates. They were on their way to the garbage can (we were clearing out an old house so it could be torn down), and Zach had come up behind me and scared me. I dropped the plates, and the glass shattered. I wasn't hurt, but Zach told me that he wanted to show me something. I was skeptical at first, but he took my hand and told me to jump over the glass covered ground to where he was. I did, and he pointed at where I had been standing. I was surprised to see the outline of my shoes. Everything else was covered in glass, but not where I had been standing. Before we could do anything, the neighbor's dog ran out of the gate. Big uh oh. The gate was supposed to be closed. Zach ran after the dog – right across the glass. It smeared around, but I didn't think much of it.

Well, I stood there, with my eyes closed, trying to picture just how that glass had looked. I got the picture in my head, and opened my eyes. The glass in front of the case pretty much matched the image. There had either been a fight right after the glass had been broken, or someone had run away from the breakage. Either way, there was probably more than one of these people, and they were probably still in the building. I looked around for where they could have gone, and, for reasons I will never know, I looked up.

The ceilings were really high in the foyer, and there was a huge chandelier. As I looked up, it started swaying, very slightly. Then the swaying became more noticeable, and I noticed ceiling dust falling. Before my brain fully registered, I screamed.

"ZACH! CAMMIE, GRANT! MOVE!" I pointed at the ceiling, and they looked up. It was swaying like crazy now, and I heard a crack.

This couldn't be good.

I ran down the stairs and grabbed Zach and Cammie by the arm, and pulled them toward the hallway, calling over my shoulder to Grant. He followed close behind me, and once we reached the hall, we stopped. I turned around, panting, and screamed again. Zach, Cammie, and Grant looked back toward the foyer just in time to see the huge chandelier crash to the ground. I put my hands in front of my face to block flying glass shards.

After a minute, I could hear shouts from the dorm floors, and footsteps coming from the downstairs rooms, like the kitchens and the gym. I heard Cammie let out a sigh. She pulled out her Target phone, and started typing. A minute later, my phone started buzzing, and I looked at her.

"Oops." She said, with a small smile on her face. "I sent it to all the girls that came… and you were under that category."

I laughed and read it anyway.

_FROM: Cammie (I had taken the time to change it from Unknown to her real name.) _

_Major yikes. The chandelier in the foyer came crashing down. I don't think it was an accident. Check all the floors for suspicious activity. Val and I are downstairs, with Zach and Grant. We're safe, thanks to Val. ____ We'll check out the downstairs. The glass case was smashed. This isn't a good thing. Duh. –C _

I looked at her and smiled. "We better get moving, huh?"

She nodded, and then turned to the boys. "We'll go right, you guys go left. I've got the girls searching the upstairs floors. You may want to fill some of the guys in on what happened."

"Like Jonas. He's probably freaking out." I laughed. "Or not. But I'd still tell him."

My brother nodded, and pulled out his Touch and started typing. Cammie and I started down the hall, peering into every room we passed. It was a really long hallway, with a bunch of little hallways going off of it. After about thirty minutes, we finished the whole side. We hadn't found anything, or anyone. As we jogged back to the foyer, I thought hard. We had run downstairs right after hearing the crash (the first one). We hadn't passed anyone. That meant that whoever had done it was either super quick and had gone to the second floor and hid, or was down the hall that my brother and Grant checked out.

I think Cammie was reading my mind or something, because she spoke up in a quiet voice. "There's definitely more than one of them. They couldn't have smashed the glass, and then run up and loosened the chandelier." She was dead right, and that was a very scary thought.

We heard another crash, and without saying anything, started running full speed towards the boys' end of the hall. We met up with Zach and Grant just as they were coming out of a classroom. Zach had blood on his face, and Grant was really pale.

"What happened?" I asked, but Zach shushed me.

"We need to get out of here. The teachers can handle this one." This wasn't like my brother. He had never let someone do for him what he could do for himself.

"Zach," I whispered. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you later, sis. Just go. Grant and I are going to stop by the bathroom. We'll meet up with you two." He pushed Cammie and I toward the foyer. There were teachers everywhere, and two of them ran towards the room Zach and Grant had just come out of. The boys slipped into the bathroom, and Cammie and I looked at each other. I nodded, and without saying anything, we ran silently back towards the room in question.

**(A/N: So, I just remembered the line from the second book, where Cammie asks Zach what his parents did (with the truth rings), and she asked "They were CIA?" and he says "Used to be". Well… I have to figure out how to fit that in here, since obviously Val and Zach have parents in my story. Hmm… Review please! :D) **


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N: Thank you SO much for the lovely reviews! There was so many of them! :D That makes me very happy. You know what else makes me happy? That because of those reviews, I got a really good idea (if I do say so myself)! I probably should reward you lovely readers with a nice long chapter… But I'm not going to. *hides face with hands to block sharp projectiles* Don't kill me!! That will only stop the progress for ever! The next one will be out VERY soon. I just like the cliff hanger :D Review please!)**

When we reached the door, Cammie, having way more experience and training, went first. Inside, we didn't see anything at first, but I noticed a door near the back of the room was cracked open. I pointed, and we slid quietly over toward it. Cammie pushed it open, and looked around the corner. She slid over to me and whispered, "There's nothing. What could the boys have seen?"

I started to shrug, but stopped. On one of the desks, I saw a crate of what looked like… makeup. I raised my eyebrows and crept over to it. Inside, there was a whole ton of stuff that _shouldn't _be at a boys' school. The two things I noticed right away were powder and this stuff that looked like fake blood. For the second time since I'd been at the school, Zach's warning echoed in my head.

"_Then, on the first night during supper, we'll have a pop test. It's going to be a fake bomb drill; all the girls are going to freak out. If they're smart, they'll try to "disable" it, if not, they'll just scream while we, the guys, laugh." _

"Rats!" I said out loud.

"SHH!" Cammie said, looking panicked.

I was too wrapped up in thought to pay attention. Zach had said that it would be a fake bomb drill, and it would be during supper. It was neither of those things. What was going on?

"Val?" She waved her hand in front of my eyes. "You okay?"

I nodded, and then shook my head. "Zach told me about this fake pop test thing the boys had planned. They wanted to trick you guys… Well, _us_. This seems like something they would do, but it's not what he said it would be, or _when_ he said it would be."

Cammie shook her head. "There's no way this is planned. I got a look at the glass from the chandelier… It's real. They wouldn't go that far for a joke. Now the cabinet, that wasn't real. If it was, there would have been blood on the floor from where whoever broke it got cut. That's the type of glass the _real _cabinet door is made of." I looked at her, and she gave a short laugh. "We have one at our school too." I nodded, and she continued. "Maybe this started as a joke, but it's not anymore."

I didn't want to believe her. I really didn't. I was perfectly fine with all this being a joke, and getting to go hit Zach for tricking me.

But if there was one thing I knew, it was that I had to believe Cammie, whether I liked it or not. This wasn't a test.

"So what's next?" I asked Cammie. She started to reply, but my eyes got wide with realization, and I cut her off. "Oh my gosh, Cammie. I bet the boys don't realize that this _isn't_ a test!! That's why Zach didn't want us coming in here… We'd see the makeup. And those teachers, they're not in here. There's no sign of a struggle anywhere in this room. We need to warn the boys." Cammie nodded, knowing what I wasn't saying.

We needed to warn my brother.


	11. Chapter 11

Before we could even move, two very scary things happened at once. One was a loud shriek (we're talking ear – splitting, glass breaking loud) came from the direction of the room connected to the one we were standing in. The other was a very loud and very long stream of expletives coming from the same general direction.

The girl in me wanted to run as far away from said room as I could, but the spy in training in me (and the spy in Cammie) wanted to check it out.

The spy / spy in training won.

We ran into the room, expecting to find something awful. Or, I was at least. I'm not sure what Cammie was thinking. What we found was, well, disappointing. There was nothing in the room.

Cammie started running across the empty room, and came to another door. I hadn't even noticed it, but she pulled it open. Just as she did, there was another scream, similar to the first. I covered my ears, but Cammie didn't even flinch. She blocked the doorway, making sure that I didn't go inside the room.

"There are motion detectors in this room. Have you ever disabled a sensor?" I shook my head. "Right. Stand right here; don't step into this room until I tell you to, okay?" I nodded. "Be ready to run across to that door and open it." I nodded again, and Cammie climbed up the built – in shelves. I was afraid she would fall, but I realized that she probably had better balance than I did, and I was in gymnastics for five years. She pried the vent off, and set it on one of the shelves before climbing into the air duct. I was shocked that it was big enough for a person to fit into it! Thirty seconds later (yes, I counted), she climbed back out of the vent and down the shelves, telling me to go the second she got her head out of the vent. I ran towards the door, and grabbed the handle. It wasn't locked, so I opened it, and heard Cammie's footsteps behind me. I held it open for her, and she ran through with me following close behind.

The first thing I saw was one of the teachers tied up, and four men (in black, of course) surrounding her. They had spun around when Cammie and I had run in, and I, for one, was freaking out. Two of the guys started for Cammie, and one came after me. The fourth stayed by the teacher, who's eyes were super wide. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cammie flip the first one, and struggle with the second. She was good, but these guys were better. That was scary.

The one that came after me must have been new. He could have done anything and caught me off guard, but he stood there for a second. Well duh, I hit him in the stomach. What was I supposed to do, wait? Nope.

He bent over, and the fourth guard ran to me. Cammie finally knocked her second attacker off his feet, who, in the process of falling, hit my guy. Cammie nodded toward the teacher, and started making sure that the guys didn't wake up any time soon. I slipped around the fallen men, and untied the teacher. I was actually surprised that she hadn't done it herself, because the knots were pretty easy. I get the whole concept that it's harder when your hands are tied, but really. She's a _spy_ teacher. What's up with that?

I think she knew what I was thinking (what's up with these people and mind reading?!), because she looked apologetic.

"This was supposed to be fake… A test. My role was to get _captured_," she said, making air quotes around the last word. "So I let them tie my hands, and then I realized that I didn't know the people that were standing there. That was the scream. I think there's someone else in the next room over… No one in here yelled curse words."

"Rats!" I muttered, and Cammie came over to us. I explained what the teacher had told me, and she shook her head.

"That's just great." I followed her to the door at the other side of the room, and the teacher followed me. Cammie opened it slowly, and, sure enough, there was another teacher, a man this time, tied up. Only this time, there weren't any guards. I was fully prepared to run straight to the man, untie him, and go back to my room.

Cammie, however, didn't share the same idea. Neither did the teacher. She boosted Cammie up, who climbed into yet another ceiling duct. I stood back and watched, fully realizing that my beginners luck was gone. I had no clue what was going on.

The lights flickered in both rooms, and I heard Cammie mutter something in a foreign language. I still didn't know what was going on, but I had a sneaky suspicion that it wasn't good.

**(A/N: So, I'm supersupersupersuper sorry. I had a… technical issue. Some call it grounding. In other words, I couldn't get on the computer. But I'm off until January 6****th****, so I'll force myself to write. And we're getting wireless soon… So my iTouch will have internet access! Woo. That's good for you guys, because I can write anywhere (Like in my room at night. Don't tell my parents.) Anyway, I hope you like it.) **


	12. Chapter 12

Two hours later, I stepped out of the office after getting debriefed. I explained the whole story, from arriving at Blackthorne, to the whole gym incident, to the chandelier falling, and finally to what happened with the male teacher.

***

After Cammie had finished muttering expletives, she jumped out. "It's a silent security system. This place is weird." She hissed, and the teacher nodded. I realized that we were still at the school. Why on earth would they have all this high tech stuff that wasn't even helping us?!

"These rooms are used for training and practice." She explained. (There we go again with the mind reading!) "Someone had to know that they were here, and then program their codes into it. We certainly didn't do this."

I sighed as Cammie went to work on what looked like an electrical socket. (Turns out it was one of the many programming disks. I had a lot to learn.) She held it up for the teacher to see. She took it, and popped a mini disk out of it. After fishing around in her pocket, she put one of her own in it, and handed it back to Cammie, who handed me a spray bottle filled with what looked like water. I raised my eyebrows at her, and she stifled a laugh.

"Spray it about a foot above the ground in the room. Don't step past the doorway, but try to cover as much area as you can." I nodded, and stepped over toward the door. Kneeling down, I sprayed the area right in front of the door, and then reached into the room and kept spraying. At Cammie's word, I stopped and stood back. I could see little red laser lights all over the place. Cammie put the fake electrical socket back, and all the lines disappeared.

"Sweet," I said, and moved toward the door.

"Val, wait." I looked over at Cammie. She shook her head and continued. "The whole room wasn't connected by that disk. Only a little area. There's probably five more. Look around and tell me if you find any more."

I nodded, and started looking at the walls. In record time, the teacher and Cammie found what we were looking for, and I stood back and watched. They got the disks disabled, or whatever. It all got kind of blurry. I snapped back to reality when Cammie jumped down from a vent two feet from me.

"Are you okay?" She asked, giving me a weird look.

"Yeah, fine. What's next?"

"We go in. And try not to get killed." She said with a small smile. I had a feeling that she was kidding, but the thought still scared me a little.

I followed Cammie into the room. She had given me the job of spraying the stuff in the spray bottle all over the floor. I did so quickly, and she smiled. There were no little red lines, which meant that we (well, they… I hadn't done much) had gotten all of the disks. Cammie and the teacher, whose name I still didn't know, went over to the guy and untied him. He muttered the same thing the lady had – it was supposed to be a test, so he let them tie him up. When Cammie asked where they had gone, the guy shrugged.

"They killed the lights. They were all wearing black… And that door leads to a hallway. They could be anywhere by now."

I felt my eyes getting wide, and I looked at Cammie. We ran to the door and I flung it open. She ran past me, and stopped short.

"He wasn't kidding. This hallway is massive." I muttered.

Cammie nodded. "Start checking rooms," she said with a sigh.

I nodded, and looked in about three rooms before I came to one with a window. I crossed the room to it, and pulled back the curtains. "CAMMIE!!" I called, and seconds later she ran in.

"What's up? Oh. Wow." Together we watched as ten men in black ran across the lawn.

"What now?" I asked, but Cammie had already pulled out her Target.

"I've got eyeball. They're crossing the lawn." She said, before nodding and clicking it off. "The teachers will take care of them. We can go back to our rooms."

"Thank goodness. We need to find Zach." I mentioned, and she nodded.

"Right. Let's go." We walked back through the doors, and saw that there was already a team fixing the disks Cammie had, er… shut off. She caught my eye and smiled. We started running, and didn't stop until we were back at the main foyer. The glass had been cleaned up, and we found out that another chandelier was on its way.

Zach and Grant were leaning against the banister when Cammie and I got to our floor. They were both wearing a small smirk, and I felt Cammie tense slightly.

"You took the makeup off," I commented.

Zach nodded. "You two went into that room, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I started, but Zach cut me off.

"How long did it take before you realized it was a joke?"

"Well," Cammie started, "Val figured out it was a joke pretty quick, but we heard a scream so we went to check it out. It's a good thing we did, because it was real."

"Right, Gallagher Girl. Now you're trying to trick me. It won't work. We staged the whole thing."

Cammie shook her head. "you staged the chandelier? That was real."

"We told them it'd be more real. I didn't know they'd actually do it."

"They didn't. Someone else did." I spoke up. Zach turned to me. "For real, Zach. You need to believe us." I held his gaze, and after a minute, he looked away.

"Okay, so who's responsible, and where are they?" He said finally.

Cammie smiled. "Some guys in black. Val saw them crossing the lawn, and we told the teachers. We should go back and run their prints." She turned to me. "You okay?"

I half nodded. "Those guys… They were in black." I looked directly at Zach, but he didn't catch it. "Just like the ones that were in the gym…"

My brother laughed. "Right, Val. What's your point?"

I rolled my eyes. Zach was being short because he had been wrong. "Never mind. Let's go, Cammie. We don't want to miss lunch. It's amazing here."

**(A/N: Sorry! *ducks and throws hands over head to protect herself from flying objects* Its not as long as I wanted, but I finally figured how to move documents from my phone to the computer! And we got wireless, so yay for late night writing! :D Expect (and hope for) an update soon. BTW, does this count as a cliff hanger? And OMG I'm in love with the Jonas Brothers. I finally saw Camp Rock. Wow. (: Haa, alrighty, review please! 3) **


	13. Chapter 13

As we ran downstairs, we passed the main office. The lady teacher was walking in, and she called to us to stop.

"Girls, you'll need to come in for a debrief."

I shot a look at Cammie, and she smiled at the teacher. "We will, no problem. I dropped my bracelet in one of those rooms… I think it was the science lab. We're going to go look for it."

The teacher nodded, and disappeared into the office. Cammie and I exchanged a look, and took off again. It surprised me at how easily she had come up with a cover story. I so hoped I'd be able to do that.

Another thing I realized was that what we were doing was probably against the rules. It made sense. They probably didn't want teenagers, even if they _were_ spies, messing around with real bad guys (for lack of a better term). Especially when said bad guys had proven to be dangerous (take a look at the gym if you need proof).

"Hey Val?" Cammie started as we slowed down.

I looked over at her. "Yeah?"

"What you said back there, about the guys in black being in the gym… What do you mean?"

"I'm not too sure… It was just a connection I noticed. When Zach and I first got here, there were these guys in black and they like, came across the roof of the building and…" I felt my eyes get wide. "Oh my gosh."

"What?!" She said, grabbing my arm.

I looked up at her. "They blew something up. There was this loud boom, and smoke was everywhere. It wasn't really windy, so it all kind of stayed there… But that's when Zach and the guys believed me. Like, that there really were other people up on the roof." Cammie was giving me a funny look, and I realized that my muttering didn't really make any sense. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Okay, we were walking up to the building, and I saw two groups of guys walking across the roof. One turned out to be Zach's friends, but the other group was wheeling something across the roof and then they disappeared. They guys didn't believe me when I told them that there was the other group, but once we heard the noise, they had no choice _but_ to believe me." I took a breath, and waited for Cammie's reaction. I thought back to the moment we heard the noise.

'_We started inside, but I hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when I heard a loud boom. I looked up and saw a ton of smoke coming from the roof. I screamed, and Grant ran up beside Zach.'_

"So," Cammie started, and I snapped back to reality. "If they're the same people, and I don't doubt that they are, there could still be some of them in here. Right?"

I nodded. "That's what I was thinking." I felt a little bit better, because Cammie thought the same thing I did, and _she_ had training.

"You're good. That makes getting these prints even more important."

I nodded again and we slipped into the science lab. We went everywhere we had been earlier and dusted everything for prints. While Cammie finished up, I ran upstairs to Zach's room to find out where we could take the prints.

"Pretend like you're going to the gym. You know those three vending machines?" He asked, and I nodded, picturing it in my head. "Okay, right after the blue one there's those two water fountains. Press the round button on the one closest to the vending machine, like you're going to take a sip. But, Val, stand back when you do it. Or let Cammie do it. It scans your thumbprint and then opens the corridor. Knowing you, you'll stand there and get hit in the face."

I rolled my eyes while Zach laughed, and thanked him before running off. As I ran down the stairs, I silently thanked my old coach for convincing me to take track. The training was definitely coming in handy. I was about to start down the last staircase when movement caught my eye. Figuring it was a seventh grade boy, I ignored it, but stopped when I heard voices. They definitely didn't belong to seventh graders. My hand still on the stair banister, I spun around, looking for the source of the voices. They were coming from the next hallway over, and they were growing louder. I tiptoed towards the hallway, and peaked around the corner. There were two guys in black standing by a window. An open window. I raised my eyebrows, wondering just what they planned to do with an open window on the second floor (a second floor that was a little higher up than most second floors… The entrance hall had tall ceilings). One of them had started talking, and I didn't need to strain to hear him.

"There's no other way out. The girls here are already suspicious. We should have done what _I _said and come here a week earlier. We would have gotten in and out, no problem. But _nooo_, you wanted to wait. Well look what happened. More than two thirds of our guys got made. Now are you going to jump out or let me go? Someone could come up here any minute."

The second guy muttered something, and then stuck one foot out the window. My brain told me to stay quiet, but my instincts won, and I pulled out the thing Cammie had given me. I remembered the nickname I had given it, _Turtle_, and almost laughed. It totally fit; it took forever to start up. Unfortunately, it also beeped, but the guys didn't seem to notice.

TO: Cammie

Hey, come up here. I'm on the second floor by the staircase. There are two guys in black about to jump out the window.

I hit send as the guy got his body out the window. I tried to get a good look at their faces, but they were turned away from me. My lack of spy training was definitely showing – I couldn't even tell if they were armed. I clicked my phone thing to silent, and waited for Cammie's reply. Suddenly, in a flash of brilliance (as my mother often says), I pushed the Menu button on the screen. Scrolling through the different applications, I found the one I had hoped was there: the security camera feeds. I touched it, and smacked my forehead. _'Duh Val,'_ I thought. _'There's about fifty million security camera's in this building.'_ Then, to my relief, the first thing that showed on my screen was three options: Search by number, Search by location, and Search by relative position. I clicked the last one, and the camera feeds started disappearing. I was about to start panicking when I heard footsteps on the stairs. I turned to see Cammie, and I put my finger to my lips. She nodded and came to sit by me. Taking one look at the screen, she smiled.

"Good job!" I thought she was being sarcastic, until she continued. "That's the easiest way to find a feed if you don't know the number."

I gave her a questioning look, and she explained.

"It uses the location of the device to eliminate all the other feeds except the ones in the area of the device. That way, you don't have to know the location or the number. See?" She pointed to my screen. There were three links, and Cammie touched the first one. Right away, the guys faces showed up on my screen. I took a few still images and submitted them to the facial recognition database. Cammie peered around the wall just as the first guy jumped onto the roof. She pulled her head back and confirmed that the second guy did have a guy. Using her phone thing, she sent a text to one of the teachers (who I later learned to be Mr. Soloman) telling them that two armed bad guys were about to be heading across the main lawn. My phone vibrated; I had a match. Or, two matches. The latest alias of the first guy to go out the window was Marcus Frank, and the second guy was Devin Smith. The names and faces didn't mean anything to me, but when I looked over at Cammie, her eyes were wide.

Uh oh.

**(A/N: Okay, here you go(: Um, the reference is from Chapter 3. I put it in there in italics so you don't **_**have **_**to go back and look. I'm sorry it's taking so long. I'll be honest, if I didn't get reviews, I probably wouldn't write this story anymore. Call me lazy. Or call it writer's block. /: So, please keep reviewing. :D I'm off until the 6****th****, and then I have a few days off later in the month. My goal is to finish this before the 3****rd**** book comes out. Keep your fingers crossed. 3, Cass)**


	14. Chapter 14

"Cammie?" I whispered. "What's up?"

"I recognize those guys… They were in a folder in my mom's office. What was that folder for?" She muttered, to herself. Or, I hoped she was talking to herself, because I sure didn't know.

"Nevermind, it's not important right now." She said finally. "We'll get their prints as soon as they leave, and then run them with the other ones."

I nodded and we sat quietly, waiting for them both to disappear. On Cammie's nod, we stood up and started dusting for prints. From the window, I could see the two run across the lawn, trading stealth for speed. Cammie came up beside me and told me that the security guards were waiting for them. I laughed, glad that they weren't our problem anymore. We spent about five minutes getting any prints that were there, and then cleaning up. We decided not to tell anyone what we were doing, but at that moment Bex and Liz ran down the stairs. With a glance, Cammie and I agreed to fill them in on what was happening.

"Hey girls. Come with us, okay?" Cammie said. They nodded, and followed us downstairs and toward the lab.

***

I had told the teacher debriefing me everything, including Bex and Liz's reactions (which, by the way, was Bex getting mad at herself for sleeping through it, and Liz praising herself for sleeping through it, and then asking if she could run tests on any DNA we had collected. We let her, but Cammie insisted that Liz show me what she was doing. I think I learned more than I had the whole last semester I had spent at my old school). Cammie had too, and we met up with Bex and Liz for lunch. They agreed that it was amazing, and Zach gave us a tour of the school (well, a tour of the parts of the school we hadn't already seen). After about an hour, we passed a vending machine and I pulled a dollar out of my pocket.

"What should I get?" I asked the girls, grinning. Cammie leaned over my shoulder and Liz and Bex came on either side of me.

"Go for D16." Liz suggested. I noticed that it was a 20 ounce bottle of Sprite, so I shrugged and put my dollar in the slot. As I pressed the keys, Cammie looked at Liz.

"Why D16?" she asked.

"It's logical. The D is higher up, which would be harder to reach from the ground, like if someone was hurt, and it's by the glass, not by the edge, so you can't use the edge to pull yourself up. Then in sixteen, the one and six aren't right next to each other. I'm guessing that stairs will come down, where ordering something like F9 will open a secret hallway right next to the machine, so you could crawl or slide yourself into it and be safe."

I pushed the six and my soda fell down. I reached in to get it, and my change fell into the little slot. I didn't reach for it right away, but waited to see if a staircase would come down. When it didn't, I shrugged and reached in to get my change. _Twenty five cents_, I thought. _Why would they give me a quarter back? It says it costs a dollar._ I heard a scratching sound from behind me, and spun around. The door that had been on the other side of the hall was moving up, and was quickly replaced by a staircase. I looked at Liz, who smiled.

"Cool," she said. "It worked."

"Why didn't it come down right away?" Cammie muttered.

"Wait," I said, thinking. "I pressed D16, the soda fell. I reached in to get the soda, the change fell. The staircase didn't show up until I had gotten my change." I stopped, not knowing exactly where I was going with it. Fortunately, Liz did.

"Right. You can't just order something and leave it. You actually have to go through the motions and make it look natural. And…" she bent down and pushed on the change slot. "It checks your fingerprint." She stood up. "That's why you have to get both the soda and your change, and that's why it says it costs a dollar, but gives you a quarter back."

"Not everyone would know that it gave you change back. They'd get the soda, and walk off." I added.

"Exactly," Bex said. "But then anyone could come, get the change, and open a passageway."

"Nope," Zach said, entering the conversation for the first time. "The big slot reads fingerprints too. They two readings have to match the one that pushed the buttons. Also, some of the passages read your fingerprints as you enter them, and close behind you. Val, let everyone go up that staircase before you."

I nodded, and the girls and Zach started up the stairs. "What now?" I called to my brother.

"You can come up."

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me, and started up. I heard the scratching noise again, and saw the door starting back down. I ducked my head and hurried up the stairs.

"Cool, huh?" Zach asked once I reached the landing.

"Very." I looked around. "Um, where are we?"

"Currently? In a hallway." Zach said.

"Coming up next on _duh_." I rolled my eyes. "Where are we going?"

"To the roof."

"Okay… That wasn't the answer I was expecting." I said, looking back at Cammie. She shrugged. I did too, and then followed my brother.

**A/N: Sorry. I have no excuse for taking so long. Okay, actually I do. But I don't think it's a very good one. Um, but yeah. I wrote the ending for this story today. That basically seals the promise that I'll finish it. Usually my problem is not wanting to end it. But the ending is written. Now I just have to get there. I'm guessing that this story will be about 30 chapters long, maybe less.**

**I have two announcements: 1) To the people that want me to switch to Cammie's point of view – This is Val's story, not Cammie's. So the story will stay in Val's P.O.V. Maybe I'll write the next story from Cammie's eyes. **

**2) To those that want a good Cammie/Zach fic, ie no fighting – what's the fun in that?! I can say right now that they will get in a fight. Don't hate me, it has to happen. I'll take care of them, okay? Don't worry. **

**3 you all, Cass.**


	15. Chapter 15

The farther down the hallway we went, the quieter and more serious Zach got. Liz had come up and fallen in step beside me. Cammie and Bex were right behind us. Finally, after a couple minutes (in a whisper, Liz told me it had been two minutes and 38 seconds. I needed one of those brain clocks.), we came to a door. As Zach turned the dial on the lock, Cammie put her hand over my mouth and pulled me back behind the corner. Bex had done the same to Liz, and when they moved their hands, we both stayed quiet.

"He's up to something," Cammie whispered. "This is more than a fun tour. When you ordered that soda, he sent a text to someone. My guess is that he opened the line, and someone has been listening to us the whole time. They knew we were going to the roof, and they're probably waiting for us."

"Wow," I said. "You know, the first day I was here, Zach told me that the guys would have a fake bomb drill at dinner, so you guys would freak out. Maybe this is like that." Cammie nodded. "So what do we do?" I asked.

"We have to follow it through. If we don't, they'll keep trying to trick us."

I nodded slowly, and so did Liz and Bex.

"Let's go then." I said finally. "Pretend I dropped an earring and you guys were helping me look for it." They nodded, and we rounded the corner. The lock Zach had been messing with was open, and my brother was standing in the doorway. The sky was still light outside. I guessed it was about three thirty. We didn't start class until the next day, so we wouldn't be missed.

"There you are." Zach said. "I thought you chickened out."

"Whatever." I said, rolling my eyes. "Why would we do that?"

"You tell me."

"Are we going or not?" Bex broke in.

"You tell me." Zach said again.

I gave him a look. Cammie was definitely right. Zach was up to something. "We're going. Show us the way."

"Ladies first."

"ZACH!" I screamed.

"Fine. Gosh. What's your problem, Val?"

"Currently? You."

Zach laughed. I had used that line so much as a kid, before Zach went to boarding school. Back when we used to fight. I shook my head, clearing the memories from my mind. They wouldn't exactly help with whatever Zach had planned.

Finally, Zach stepped out onto the roof. I followed him, and Liz, Bex, and then Cammie followed me. I held the door for the girls, and stuck a rock in the way to keep it from closing completely.

"Cammie," I whispered, running up to her. "Where's Macey?"

"I'm not sure. She wasn't at lunch. I'll call her." Cammie said, her eyes a little wider than usual. I nodded, and looked around. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and took a few pictures of the view. It was really pretty. The sister in me wanted to believe that Zach brought us up here so I could take a picture and use it as a background on my laptop, but the girl (and spy) in me knew that there was more to the story.

"Val?" Cammie said, and I spun around. "Macey's on her way up. I gave her directions. She'll be ordering a Sprite too." Cammie winked and I laughed.

"Cool." I looked around again. "Hey, where's Zach?"

Liz heard my question and shook her head. "He ran over there. He didn't say why, he just left."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's go." We ran in the direction that Liz had pointed, and found that it was a dead end.

"I'm sure I saw him go this way!" Liz exclaimed.

"We believe you. Knowing Zach, he went…" I looked around before something dawned on me. "Up?" I said, looking towards the sky. "Bingo." I said, pointing towards a brick wall.

"He climbed that?" Bex asked.

I nodded. "We've been climbing walls like that since we were like seven." They gave me a funny look, and I explained. "There was a balcony that looked over our backyard, and we used to jump from it to the pool or trampoline we had back there. We weren't supposed to go up there though, because it was our parent's office, and it was way dangerous. So we climbed the wall, and jumped." I shrugged. "It was fun."

Cammie laughed. "Sounds like it. So you think Zach went up that wall?"

I nodded. "I'm almost sure of it."

"Let's find out." Bex said, starting up the wall. I followed her, and Cammie followed me.

"Do we have to?" Liz said from the ground.

"Nope!" Bex said, pulling herself onto the next level. "There's a rope. Not all the boys climbed the wall." She lowered the rope as I pulled myself up and helped her pull Liz up.

"Take that with you," Cammie said, brushing her hands off. "We may need it."

Bex rolled up the rope and slung it over her shoulder. We spread out, looking for where Zach could have gone. After a couple minutes, Cammie's cell phone rang. It was Macey, wondering where we had gone. Cam gave her directions, and we went back to searching. Minutes later, Macey's head appeared over the edge of the roof, and Bex helped her up.

"So, what are we looking for?" She said, brushing her top off.

"Zach. He went up here, and disappeared. We suspect that him and the other guys are up to something." Liz said.

"Wait, I saw Zach downstairs…" Macey said. "Him and Grant were going into their room."

The girls and I looked at each other. "Are you one hundred percent sure it was Zach?" Cammie asked after a minute.

"Positive. Grant said hi, and Zach told him to shut up. I wondered what was going on." Macey said, pulling out a nail file.

"What floor were they on?" I asked.

"The same one as that vending machine."

"Well, let's go." Bex said, starting towards the edge.

"Wait," I said, pulling out the device the girls had given me. "Liz, can you hack into Zach's phone from this?"

"Yeah. It may take a while though… I'd have to break through three different firewalls – yours, the network's, and his, but I could probably do it in about ten minutes."

"Would it help if I disabled my firewall, and knew a password for his?" I asked, navigating to the settings.

"Oh yeah. It'd save about eight minutes. I've cracked the network firewall before."

"Great!" I said, handing it to her. "If we can get into his, we can track his position, and find out where he is for sure right now. And we can see any texts he's sent or received."

"Wow. You learn fast." Cammie said, looking over my shoulder.

"Thanks. We should also check the camera's once we're in Zach's system."

"Good point. We could start checking them now… Just put his number in the search field." Bex said. I rattled off Zach's number, and we watched the camera feeds eliminate themselves.

True to her word, Liz was in Zach's system in two minutes. After that, she found his location in ten seconds flat, and we watched her eyes get wide.

"Um, he's in our room."

**A/N: Yay. It's done. Posting may be slow for a while… I'm about to start a research paper. Super fun. (not!) -_- Anywho, review!**


	16. Chapter 16

"What?!"

"In our room?"

"Yep. The room that you, Cammie, Macey and I share. The one by Val's room. That room."

"That's crazy."

Liz nodded. "What now?"

I opened my mouth, but closed it and turned to Cammie.

"Liz? Can you bring up the blueprints of the building?" She nodded, and Cammie continued. "Val, monitor Zach's phone, and let me know of any incoming or outgoing texts or phone calls. Macey, help her. Bex, we need to get this rope set up so we can get down the side of the building."

Bex and Cammie ran off, and Liz worked on finding the blueprints for the section of the building we were in. Or on, depending how you look at it. I looked at Macey, who shrugged.

"What do you think they're doing in your room?" I asked.

"I don't know. He's your brother. What do _you_ think he's doing?"

"Um..." I paused. I had no idea what Zach would be doing in the girls' room. (I mean, really. If I knew why they were there, I would have spoken up already!) "Maybe he's playing another trick..."

"He is." Liz spoke up. I spun around, startled. "Look at the screen. Text messages are flowing in like crazy. I sent the blueprints to Cammie, and then really looked at them. Our room is exactly three floors below this spot, so they probably used the roof access to get down. I sent that to Cammie also, and her and Bex are checking it out. Then I linked the two devices together, and all those text messages flowed into mine. So I read through some of them, and basically, the boys are setting up a trick."

"Well, what kind of trick?" I asked.

"I'm not too sure. They kept changing it, but the general idea is smoke, sirens, and the end result of us getting made fun of."

"That sounds like typical Zach." I said with a sigh.

"What sounds like typical Zach?" Cammie asked, coming up behind me.

"His idea of a joke."

"Oh. Okay, well Bex and I found the roof access they used. Any ideas on what to do once we get to our room?" Cammie looked at each of us in turn, waiting for an answer. When no one said anything, she turned to Bex. "Help me out here."

"Okay, even if we go in there knowing what's going to happen, it's still going to happen. We may not become the laughing stock of the school, but we'll still have to clean up if it involves smoke." She paused to take a breath. "We need to stop them before they do anything."

"Which would be like now..." I said after a minute. Cammie nodded. "Then we better go." I said finally.

We started toward the door that would lead us away from the roof and down to our floor. Cammie went first, followed by Bex, Macey, Liz, and then me. I closed it behind me, and nodded to Cammie. She led us through hallways and down staircases, and finally, we ended up in the hall that ran into ours. Cammie quickly filled us in on the plan, which involved Liz and Macey casually walking into their room, and her, Bex, and I coming in through the window, and then led Bex and I out of one window so we could go in through ours.

I'm not too sure where Cammie got everything, but the second Bex and I climbed out of the window (there was a little ledge around the building, so we didn't have to worry about falling), she handed us all this equipment, most of which would keep us from getting hurt too bad. We made our way over to their window, and Cammie said something about being glad they hung curtains up when they did. She unlocked the window from the outside, and sent a text to Liz telling her we were ready. We silently counted to thirty, and then opened the window. We could hear the boys arguing inside, and then the door opening.

"And I was just telling Cammie how I thought that... Um, hi?" Macey's voice came through the open window.

"Hello ladies. Can we help you?" Zach replied smoothly.

"Yeah, you could let us know what you're doing in our room."

"Looking for something. Why?"

Cammie pushed back the curtains slightly and nodded. She silently climbed through, and Bex and I followed her. The boys didn't even notice, or if they did, they didn't turn around.

"Just wondering." Liz shrugged.

"So, are you leaving anytime soon?" Macey asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

"Um, sure..." Zach said, looking around. He started for the door, but Macey and Liz shifted so he couldn't get out. "Hey, will one of you toss me that alarm clock?"

Macey and Liz glanced at each other, confused looks on their faces. "Sure?" Liz said after a while. I shook my head at Liz, and she rubbed her eye to let me know she had seen me. Zach had pulled the alarm clock trick on be before. When I had picked it up, a timer started counting down, and thirty seconds later - long enough for Zach to get out of my room - the whole room filled with smoke, which caused the smoke alarm to go off. I really didn't want that happening here.

Liz got about halfway to the alarm clock when she looked down. "Darn. Shoelace." She bent down to tie it, and I could tell Zach was getting frustrated. Cammie nodded to me, and I started towards the bedside table that the alarm clock in question was sitting on. I could see a thin layer of what looked like the sticky stuff that comes on the back of gift cards and junk mail. I knew (from experience) that it was the sensor that activated the timer. My job was to disconnect the sensor from the timer, and the timer from the smoke system. I slid down the wall and started messing with the wires that the boys had tried so hard to hide.

I had almost gotten them disconnected when Zach snapped. Liz had switched to her other shoe, and I guess Zach had gotten tired of waiting. He reached over and knocked the alarm clock off of the table.

Not a good thing.

**(A/N: I'm depressed. There's this stray cat that roams the neighborhood, and she often has kittens. They always play in my backyard. My mom and I are allergic, but I love to watch them play, and I love them all. Well, today I came home and saw one of the kittens from the latest litter (they're still babies) sitting on the patio. It looked like it was eating a rat, but when he got up to leave, my dad and I saw that it was his leg! ): It almost broke my heart, and I felt my eyes tear up. We gave him some milk, but he just got scared and hobbled off. The neighbor told us that she's been feeding them, and his leg got caught in the fence and was probably dislocated. My dad said the leg will probably fall off. I really hope the kitten lives. I'll keep you posted. **

**Also, I'm thinking about doing a new story. It's not a fanfic, so I'm going to post it on my non-fanfiction account (The link's on my profile). Teehee. It won't affect the posting of this story. So lemme know. Love you all, bye!)**


	17. Chapter 17

Chaos broke out in that room, and let me tell you, chaos in a room the size of theirs is _not _fun. I caught the alarm before it hit the floor, and Macey and Bex blocked the door. Cammie climbed onto one of the beds, and worked on disabling the smoke system. Liz ran over to me, and positioned the alarm clock exactly where it had been before. I let her take over the wires, and jumped on Zach's back. He spun around, and Grant tried to pull me off my brother, but was stopped by Bex. Liz and Cammie were shouting at each other, and some of the boys were trying to get past Macey. Zach flipped me over onto Liz's bed, and went to help Grant. I got up, but Liz grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where she was working.

"I can't disconnect these wires without it immediately setting off the smoke, and Cammie won't be able to disconnect the smoke system wires before the timer runs out." She said, panicked.

"Uh oh." I muttered, and climbed onto the bed with Cammie. I watched her mess with the wires, and saw the problem. Zach had tangled them up so bad that it was nearly impossible to untangle and disconnect in thirty seconds.

"Ten seconds!" Cammie called as Macey and Bex pushed Grant and Zach out of their room. The rest of the boys followed willingly, probably knowing what would happen in ten - or nine - seconds.

Instinctively, I reached up and pulled on the clump of wires. They came down, along with the thing that actually produced the smoke. Cammie reached over and disconnected the single wire that connected it to the mansion's alarm system, and I tossed it to Liz. She looked down at it, and then up at Cammie and I like we were crazy.

"Hang it out the window!" I shouted. Her eyes got wide, and she did what she was told. It was still connected to the wires inside their room, so it just hung there, below the window. I jumped off the bed and shut the window. Cammie and Liz came up next to me, and we watched as the timer ran out and the smoke started pouring out of it.

"Wow. I am _so _glad that didn't do that in our room." Liz said with a sigh after a while. "Do you know how bad that would have been?"

"I know exactly how bad that would have been," I said, remembering my smoke filled room. "We have got to go get Zach."

Cammie nodded, and, before I could say anything else, was out the door and down the hall. Liz and I glanced at each other and took off after her. By the time we reached her, she had found Zach, and was clearly pissed.

"Look. I don't know what your problem is, but you obviously have one!" I sighed as I listened to Cammie scream at my brother. I knew that he had been a jerk, but it was still hard listening to anyone but me scream at him.

"Gallagher Girl, calm down," Zach tried, but Cammie cut him off. Macey and Bex ran up next to us, and Cammie started in on Zach again.

"Don't tell me to calm down. You set up a smoke system in our room! If that's not messed up, I don't know what is."

"It was just a joke!"

"Not a very funny one." Cammie looked furious, so Bex stepped up and separated the two. We led Cammie away from Zach, and away from her room. She was so mad. The whole walk outside was a rant about how much of an idiot Zach was, and how stupid she felt for trusting him. Then she got quiet. When we got outside, she turned to me.

"You knew, didn't you?" She stared at me.

"Huh?"

"You knew that they were planning this. You were in on it."

"Excuse me?" I couldn't believe that she was really accusing me of _helping_ my idiot brother and his friends.

"You said that you knew they were planning a fake bomb drill, or whatever. That part was just to get us to trust you. Wasn't it? We'd feel smart and then this would prove how much better the guys were." Cammie took a breath. Bex eyed me suspiciously, and Liz looked worried. Macey looked bored, but that didn't surprise me much.

"Of course I didn't know! Why would I do something like that? Zach and his friends tried to make me look stupid the second I got here. He's been pulling pranks on me since we could walk. Why would I _help_ him pull something on girls I'm supposed to spend high school with?" Now I was upset. Cammie wasn't phased.

"Why would you? To make yourself look good. It's the perfect plan. Girls show up, and they look stupid. Since you're in on it, the guys don't associate you with us."

"That makes no sense!"

"Oh really?" Cammie crossed her arms.

"Okay, it makes perfect sense. Just not to me. Look at it this way. Zach's my _brother_. I grew up with him, and now I live in the same building with him every day. I'm already close with him. I don't need to make you guys look dumb just to get in with the guys. I already am. But you don't have to believe me." With that I turned around and walked back into the school. I could feel Cammie's eyes on me, but I forced myself not to turn around.

**(A/N: Hi. I'm warning you, posting will be slow. I stopped my new story, but I'm going to BPA State (competition) in like 29 days, and I've got a LOT to study. -_- So hang in there. You guys make my day.)**


	18. Chapter 18

Once inside, I took the stairs two at a time. I slowed down when I reached the landing, and tried to think. Zach still though Cammie and I were friends, or almost friends. Clearly, that wasn't true. I had said I was "in with the guys", but was I really? True, Zach was my brother, but he could still hate me. AH! I just wanted to bang my head into a wall.

Somehow though, I had a feeling that wouldn't solve my problem.

So I started in the direction of Zach's room. As I got closer to it, I could hear raised voices. They were coming from my twin's room, but not all of them belonged to him or his roommates. Things got quiet, and I leaned against the door. Big mistake. The next few words were really loud, and sounded like whoever was yelling was standing on the other side of the door. I jumped back as the doorknob twisted. I knew two things. One, I still didn't know who the voices belonged too, and two, I did not want to be standing there when they came out. I started down the hallway, but Zach's voice stopped me.

"Look Alan. She's my sister. I don't want you hanging around her. My _parents_would kill me if she came home after hanging around with a bad influence." There was something weird about the way he said parents, but I didn't have time to process it. I had recognized the voices. The loudest one belonged to Alan Davis, and the others belonged to his roommates. This couldn't be good. Zach sounded too angry for it to be good.

"Listen Zach. She's her own person. You can't tell her what to do, and you can't tell me what to do. If I want to talk to her, and she lets me, I'm going to talk to her. I wasn't asking your permission. I was keeping you in the loop. My mistake." I heard the door open and I took off. I darted around the corner and down the stairs. I didn't even watch where I was going. I just needed to get away from them. It wasn't like I disliked Alan. I didn't really know him. He was pretty cute, but it wasn't exactly the time for that. I needed to get things straight with the girls before I started hanging out with the guys. It totally wouldn't look good if I started "talking to" one of Blackthorne's most popular guys. I'd never become friends with Cammie that way.

In my haste to get away, I had taken some hallways that I didn't know, and found myself back in the hallway in front of Zach's room. _Great_, I thought. _A circle. Well, while I'm here..._ I crept up to Zach's door and listened for a minute before knocking. Zach opened the door looking mad, and when he saw that it was me, his expression didn't soften much.

"Hey."

"Hi. Can I talk to you?" I asked cautiously.

"About what?"

"Umm..." I looked around, hoping to come up with a good reason.

"Whatever Val."

"Ohh-kay. You're in a bad mood. Cammie and the girls hate me. Know of any hid-"

"Wait. Cammie's mad at you? Why?" Zach paused, the door halfway closed.

"Oh, that. She thinks that I was in on that dumb trick that you guys pulled. So she's mad at me." I shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"She wha-? Aww man. That wasn't supposed to happen." Zach slapped his forehead.

"Oh it wasn't? So what _was_ supposed to happen?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"I don't know, it was just a joke!" Zach insisted. I shook my head, and Zach narrowed his eyes. "You know, I think you're making too big of a deal about this."

"Oh, _I'm_ making a big deal about this? Right, whatever Zach. You _always_ mess stuff up for me." I knew my voice was rising. "You pull your stupid pranks, and then if anything goes wrong, it was all a joke. I'm the crazy one that makes too big of a deal out of something. I never should have come here. Why couldn't I have taken self-defense classes and stayed at my old school? Maybe I'd be in danger, but at least I wouldn't be with _you_!" With that I spun around and started down the hall.

"Val!" Zach called, but I ignored him. I turned the corner and almost ran into Cammie. She opened her mouth to say something, but I pushed past her. I didn't want to hear it.

As I started down the stairs, I heard Zach's footsteps stop, and I fainly heard Cammie say calmly, "Let her go. You'll make things worse." I crouched down on the stairs, hidden from her and my brother, but still where I could hear them. I held my breath as Cammie continued. "She really..." The rest was drowned out by a group of seventh graders thundering past the stairs. I glared at them and stood up, realizing that Cammie and Zach had probably already left. I started back up the stairs, and made my way to my room. I opened the door, not really paying attention.

"Hey Val." I jerked my head up and looked in the direction of the voice. There was Liz, Bex, and Macey, sitting on the floor leaning against my bed.

**(A/N: Soo, what do you guys think? I'm excited. Oh, and let me tell you, watching someone play a computerized version of "frisbee golf" is soo great. Especially when they're not that good. :D Just kidding, he's getting better. Or, maybe not. **

**Oh, and btw, I figured out what I'm going to do about Zach & Val's parental problem. :D So yay for the crazy way my brain works when I'm sleep deprived (dumb school) and attempting to design *cough*useClipArt*cough* a flag (stupid Utopia project that my THEATRE class shouldn't even be doing). Okay. Pointless rant over.) **


	19. Chapter 19

"Uh, hi?" I said slowly.

"Look, we're sorry about Cammie. She was just really mad." Liz said, looking directly at me.

"Right..." I glanced around. "That's why you're here?"

They looked at each other. "Well... Actually, we need Zach's password." Liz admitted.

"What?" I crossed the room and turned on my laptop.

"Zach's password. We need to get into his computer and access his email." She explained.

"Why?" I logged on and clicked on the Internet button.

"Why?" Bex repeated.

"Yeah, why. It comes right between X and Z." I looked over at her.

"We need to get into Grant's computer, and the easiest way is through Zach's." Macey shrugged.

"Wait, what?" I straightened up.

"Grant said something about having the password to Dr. Steve's computer..." She trailed off and Bex picked up the thought.

"And there's something going on with him."

"Oh." I looked at each of them in turn. After a minute, I shrugged. "Can I email it to you later? I don't know it by heart, but I've gotten it written down somewhere."

"Sure. Thanks." They stood up and left. I shut the door behind me and flopped down on my bed. It had been a stressful day.

***

When I woke up, it was dark outside. My roommates had come in while I was sleeping, and they were all fast asleep now. I checked my cell phone (apparently cell's didn't work at Gallagher - they had these huge transmitters that blocked signals. When I asked about mine, I was told that over the winter break, Blackthorne had set theirs up so that cell phone signals came through if they number was registered as a student's or faculty member's phone) and saw that it was four thirty in the morning. _Great_, I thought. _What am I supposed to do now? _I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep, and I didn't want to shower. It would wake everyone up. Finally I decided to go ahead and find Zach's password. Taking my laptop into the bathroom (so the light wouldn't wake up my roommates), I tried to figure out where it would be. After a mini battle with Microsoft Excel and my email account, I found it. Zach hadn't _known_he was giving it to me, but I was able to trace the keystrokes he had used when he signed into his email from my computer. I sent Bex an email with one line:

!amanaPlanacanalpanamA

I knew that Zach hadn't changed his password. He was a palindrome fan, and by putting the backwards version of one, I guessed that he figured it was safe. It probably would have been, if I wasn't here. Oh well.

I signed off, and brushed my teeth, hoping that the girls would find whatever they needed. I was still in yesterday's clothes, so I slipped on my shoes and tiptoed out the door without bothering to change. I wasn't too sure where I was going, but I didn't turn back. Before I knew it, I was standing outside Zach's door. I wanted to know why he was mad at me. Or if he was mad at me. I wanted to know what Cammie had told him.

And I was seriously thinking about waking him up just to find out.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I spun around. Luckily, I didn't scream.

"What are you doing outside my room?" Zach asked quietly.

"Sleepwalking. What are _you_ doing outside your room?"

"Val. You don't sleepwalk." Zach said, sitting down with his back against the wall.

"How do you know? You're never home." I sat next to him.

"Good one." Zach paused. "But not good enough. To answer your question," he pointed to himself. "Spy."

"Lame." I knew I should ask him about Cammie, but before I could, Zach started talking.

"I needed to talk to you. I was thinking about asking Cammie out."

"Okay... You're telling me this because?" I said, getting upset. He _knew_ that she hated me, and yet he wanted to date her?!

"The keyword is was."

"What?"

"Was."

"Was what?!"

"VAL!"

"What?!"

"I _was_ thinking about asking her out. Not anymore. I'm not going to date someone that doesn't like you. You're my sister." Zach sighed, and I knew that no matter what he said, he still liked Cammie.

"Zach, you should ask her out."

"What?" That word had been used a bunch in our short conversation.

"Ask Cammie out. She's good for you. Maybe you won't be such a jerk all the time." I said, standing up. I looked down at Zach, who didn't say anything. I rolled my eyes and walked away. I hadn't gotten far when I heard his door open and shut again. I was alone in the hall.

Of course, I then ran into something. The split second after I figured out that the something was really a someone, it started talking.

"Hey." Cammie's voice came through the darkness.

"Oh. Hi. You scared me." I said with relief.

"Sorry. Um, hey. I needed to talk to you... I heard you and Zach just now. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you for his tricks. After you left, my roommates pointed out that you had no reason to be in on it, and being mad at you probably wouldn't help things. So I'm sorry."

I just looked at her (or where I thought she was - there wasn't enough light to see clearly). "It's okay." I said finally. It really was. I had no reason left to be mad at Cammie. "Just promise that you won't do that again."

"Promise." She said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "You and Zach are two different people, and I won't blame you for anything he does."

"Oh..." I said. "I was talking about coming out of the dark and scaring me. But that works too." I smiled and Cammie laughed.

"I'll try not to. Hey, Bex got your email. Want to help us get into Grant's system?" Cammie offered.

I nodded, and then realized that she couldn't see me. "Sure."

We silently ran down the hall. I stopped to get my laptop, and then we made our way to Cammie's room. Macey and Bex were sitting behind Liz, who was typing furiously. She looked up as we came in.

"Hey, Cammie? We can't get it to work."

"Get what to work?" She asked, sitting down by Liz.

"We're in Grant's system. The password Val gave us was still the right one... What's up with that one anyway?" She looked at me.

"Zach's a freak," I replied with an eye roll.

"Hm. We'll go with that. Anyway, Grant has this password thing set up so only someone with the password or his IP address can read his emails."

"Can I try something?" I asked Liz. She nodded and handed me her laptop. Not too sure where I was going with this, I started typing random letters. After that didn't work (I knew it wouldn't), I actually thought a little. It had to be something that people wouldn't think of, but something that 'represented his greatness', as I had actually heard him say one break when he called Zach. My mind went back to the first time I met him. He (and the other boys) had been introduced as the "Best teenage spies around." Cautiously, I typed four letters, _BTSA_,and hit enter. It took a couple of minutes, but a soft ding confirmed that it had worked.

"You got it!" Liz screamed. "What was it?!"

"BTSA. An acronym for best teenage spy around. He's full of himself." I said, and Cammie and Bex laughed.

"Well cool. We're in."

We spent the next thirty minutes searching Grant's email. Fortunately, we came up with a password before dawn. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Dr. Steve, unlike Zach, apparently changed his password every so often. Liz sighed, Macey flopped back on her bed, Bex and Cammie exchanged a look, and I shrugged. What else could we do?

Liz then declared that it wasn't important enough to stay up any later, and I retired to my room. My roommates were still sleeping, and I slipped into bed. I probably only slept five minutes before my alarm went off. Time to get ready for class. Oh the joy.

**(A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get it out. Darn paper. It's due tomorrow. We're in the editing process now. I'm super tired. _Dirty Laundry_ is an amazing book. AND NO! It's not dirty. At all. Okay, maybe a little. But nothing serious. *cough*Mel*cough* I don't remember who it's by. _That Summer _by Sarah Dessen is just as good. It made me cry. Okay, bye now. Please review :D)**


	20. Chapter 20

The weeks passed quickly, and before I knew it, we were about to make our first trip into town. I was pretty excited, since the tension between Cammie and I was gone. Her and Zach were dating, and I had politely turned Alan down, not wanting to start trouble. He had seemed kind of mad, thinking it was Zach's doing. I assured him that it wasn't, and the idiot didn't believe me. I _sure_ as heck wasn't dating him after that. After a while things calmed down. The whole school grew used to Zach and Cammie together, and most of the school was used to the fact that I was pretty much off limits (Zach's words, not mine. He's a protective older brother. It's kinda freaky). Grant had gone back to flirting with Bex, and Jonas and Liz got closer. Things were good.

If you'd like to stop reading, now's the time. Get out while things are good. Knowing my life (which I do. Or, I think I do...), things won't stay good for very long. I mean, really. I thought my life at my old school was good, and what happens? I get forced to transfer here. There was also that time in fifth grade when my best friend, Sydney Turner, and I were planning a trip to California. We had everything figured out. Our parents had time off, it was really happening. Then her mom was about to make reservations at the hotel we would be staying at, and what do you know? She got a call about a family reunion that was supposed to happen the very same weekend.

We never went on that trip. To this day, I still haven't figured out if they really went to the reunion, or it was just something the CIA had come up with so they could send my parents to Flordia to investigate a bomb dealer (don't ask. It's safest).

Since I was thinking about Sydney, I decided to send her an email, asking how things were going at home. She had become one of the school's biggest gossips, so she _always_ had information. Now that I was gone, it was a good thing. I sent a quick _'hey! what's up? i miss you, how's school??'_ and not even ten minutes later, she replied.

_'EEP! I miss you too! School's boring.. speaking of school.. what was the name of your school? We tried googling "Gallagher" but nothing came up. /: did we get it wrong? The girls and i wanted to send you a care package. You've been gone too long. How's life? How's Zachy? --Syd.' _

Yikes. I hadn't planned on them 'Googling' (is that really a word?!) my school. I decided it would be best to reply to her as soon as possible, because who knew when we'd leave.

_'It's Gallagher.. but it's weird. I understand why nothing is on the internet about it. Don't worry about the CP, I'll see you soon!! Life's good, Zach's an idiot. Nothing's changed. Except everything. You should see the kids here. They're all like, SUPER smart. It makes me feel stupid. -Val.'_

As I finished my email to Sydney, I heard my name. "Val? VAL?! Oh, hey, there you are." Cammie said, running into my room. "You coming?"

"Yeah. Please tell me everyone's not waiting for me." I said, closing my laptop and starting out the door.

"Nope. Bex just woke Macey and Liz up, and I just got done with homework. Is your brother still here?" Cammie asked as we jogged back to her room.

"Um, he should be..." I pulled out my phone and dialed Zach's number. Two minutes later, I hung up and told Cammie that he was, in fact, still here. So were his roomates. We changed directions and ran over to their room.

"Hey, Zach? Are you coming?" I said, banging on his door.

"YEAH!" He called. Grant opened the door and let us in.

"Hi. Are you going to town?" I asked. Grant nodded as the bathroom door opened. Zach stuck his head out.

"Val. We're going to town. You are too. So go get the girls ready, and meet us back here in ten. I am not letting either of you walk there alone." With that, he pulled his head back into the bathroom and shut the door.

I looked at Cammie, who shrugged. "Let's go." We ran back to her room, met up with Bex, Macey, and Liz, and ran back to Zach's room. The boys were standing in the hallway waiting for us.

"Ready?" Zach asked.

The girls and I looked at each other and smiled. "Ready."

We started down the empty hallway, moving quickly. The silence was creeping me out.

"You know, I think we're the last ones out of this building. Even the teachers went to town." I said, laughing.

"We are. You girls take too long." Grant said, jokingly.

"Hey! It's not all us!" I broke in.

"Yeah, if _someone_ hadn't taken so darn long getting out of the shower, maybe we'd be outside on our way to town." Cammie glared at Zach.

"Oh sure, it's all my fault." Zach said, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, it is! I'm glad you admit--"

Cammie got cut off by a loud siren and the words 'CODE BLACK' coming over the speakers. I shot a panicked look at Cammie, then my brother. Cammie's eyes were wide, and Zach looked pissed. It almost made me laugh, but then I realized that whatever Code Black was couldn't be good. I was about to ask if they knew any more than I did about what was going on, but Cammie put her finger to her lips, so I stayed quiet. I looked around, noticed movement, and started to say something.

That's when the lights went out.

**(A/N: Sorry. I wanted to get here. I actually had most of this chapter written before. And I'm sorry it's shortish. Oh, for those of you that thought the girls were planning some sort of revenge, they weren't. They thought that Dr. Steve was involved in something that he shouldn't have. I'll come back to that plot as soon as I figure out where I'm going with it.**

**So, I just turned my paper in online. I'm like so worried. I think it stunk. My mom says it was good. I don't feel good. Major test tomorrow (English). Major test today (Physics). My brain is fried. Goodnight. I wanna wake up to some reviews. :D)**


	21. Chapter 21

"Uh oh." I heard Bex mutter. "Anyone got a flashlight?"

"I've got my cell phone… the screen is pretty bright." I suggested, but it was irrelevant, because a set of emergency lights came on. I looked around, and saw Cammie's hand firmly around Zach's arm. I gave her a questioning look, and she laughed.

"Last time we were in a Code Black together, he ran off and I was accused of breaching security and causing the whole thing. Which I didn't, but the whole school thought I did. So he's not getting away this time."

I grinned, and held on to Zach's other arm.

"Sis!" He said, but I cut him off.

"Sorry Zachy. You're staying here. Now will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"There must have been a breach in security. If the Code Black here is anything like it is at Gallagher, no one can get in or out." Cammie muttered.

"So... We're stuck here?" I asked slowly.

"Not exactly." Grant spoke up. "We can get out, but I don't know if it would be smart to leave. These happen for a reason."

"The _reason_ has been a test before." Bex pointed out, making air quotes around the word reason.

"Right. Somehow though, I don't think this is a test." Cammie looked around. "Let's look around; find out if anyone else is here. Then we can decide if we want to leave."

I nodded, and we split up. Liz and Jonas went left, Bex and Grant went straight, Cammie and Zach went upstairs, and Macey and I looked at each other. I remembered the movement I had seen earlier and told her about it.

"Let's go." She said, excitement in her eyes. I grinned. This should be fun. We started quietly in the direction of the movement I had seen (I still wasn't sure what it had been). Macey stopped short and pulled something out of her pocket. Even in the dim light, I could tell it was a comms unit. She handed one to me, and put the other one on herself. I held it up to my ear and heard Cammie's voice.

"Okay, so now that we've split up, we need a plan."

"Someone needs a code name first." Macey muttered. I assumed she meant me.

"Oh! Right. Um.." I could almost see Cammie scrunch her eyebrows together in thought.

"I don't need one now." I spoke up. "Do I?"

"Nah. She'll be fine." Zach's voice decided. "Now for the plan."

"_This one_ and I are checking out some movement she saw... We'll let you know what happens." Macey said, grinning at me. She mouthed the words 'Let's go', and we stepped forward quietly. Our friends tried to form a plan, but they didn't have much luck. We knew nothing about, well, anything. We didn't know who set the Code Black off, and we didn't know why.

After about ten minutes, we knew one thing: We were the only ones in the building. Macey and I had found scuff marks, but they stopped at the stairs. So much for exciting. We all met back at the boys' room. Macey and I were the closest, so we stood outside, waiting for someone with a key. Zach and Cammie showed up shortly after we did. They came running down the hall, and Cammie touched the door like, a second before Zach did.

"I won." Cammie said, slightly out of breath.

"Not fair," Zach replied. "I tripped."

"Hey, that's your own fault."

"You told me my shoes were untied, and I looked down and tripped." Zach pointed to his double knotted shoes. "These never come untied!"

"Then why'd you look?" Cammie asked with a smile. I laughed, and Zach glared at me.

"What? It's funny."

"What's funny?" Grant asked, him and Bex coming up behind me.

"Zach tripped." Cammie started.

"And Cammie won the race." I added. "That was a race, wasn't it?"

Zach nodded, and dug in his pocket for his room key. As he opened the door, he brought up the question we all were silently asking. "What now?"

"Now we figure out how to get out of here," Cammie said quietly. "But we have to make sure we can get back in if we need too." Everyone nodded, and Zach shut the door behind us. I sat next to Cammie on my brother's bed, and he rolled his desk chair next to us. "Val. You and Liz need to sync your laptops and bring them and your phones. We'll need them. Macey, can you get us some gear?" Macey nodded, and Cammie continued as we walked out. Macey headed downstairs as Liz and I ran towards our rooms. By the time I got back to hers, she had set everything up.

"Wow, you're good," I muttered.

"Thanks. I practice. Here," she handed me one end of a USB cord. "It's already connected to mine."

I plugged it in, and a dialogue box came up on my screen asking for the password. I looked at Liz, who looked sheepish. "It's cows."

I shrugged and typed it in. _Cows _was a good enough password for me. As files transferred between our computers, I remembered the thing with Dr. Steve's computer.

"Hey Liz? Did you guys ever find what you needed on Dr. Steve's computer?"

"Nope... But we could try again, with Grant and Zach helping us..." She looked at me. "What do you think?"

"I think it could work." I grinned. "Let's go find out."

***

"You what?!"

"We need to get into Dr. Steve's system. He may have something to do with all this." Liz explained.

Zach looked mad. "And you didn't tell us this before why?"

"Because you'd be mad." I shrugged. "Besides, maybe we didn't want to involve you." I was kidding about the last part, and Zach knew it.

"Whatever Val." He sent me a playful glare. "What do we need to do?"

"Um..." Liz and I looked at each other. "We need his password." Liz said finally. I wished Cammie was there. Her and Bex had gone to check out some passage ways, and Macey was still downstairs.

"Fine. Give me your laptop." I handed it to him, and he typed in the password. He hit enter before I could see the letters, and they were little dots anyway. Liz took my laptop, traced the keystrokes faster than I've ever done it, and wrote it down. His email came up, and Liz and I stared at it.

"What?" Zach said, looking between Liz and I.

"There's only one email. He deleted the rest." Liz said, and I turned to look at her. That wasn't what I had noticed. She saw my expression, and looked back at the screen. "Val?"

"Kingston's here." I said, finding my voice.

"Huh?"

"Kingston High. My old school. They're here on a field trip." I watched Zach's eyes get wide. He opened his mouth to ask how (he's my twin, I know what he thinks sometimes), and I cut him off. "I know the email address."

***

We read the email, and then read it again when Cammie, Bex, and Macey came back. Apparently, they were staying at a hotel in town. The principle had contacted his longtime friend, Dr. Steve, to arrange, and I quote, "a social gathering". We guessed that Mr. James didn't know that Blackthorne was a spy school. The Code Black probably was to protect any information getting out. (Code Red wasn't strong enough, I guess. Well, _Cammie_ guessed. We just agreed with her.)

"Hey!" Macey said, pointing to the screen. "There's an attachment."

Liz clicked on it, and up came a schedule. We looked for today's date, and, when we found it, we just sat there. Hilighted in green (the sign that Blackthorne was invited to attend the event) was this:

_Social Gathering: Dance - hotel ballroom, Room # 484, attire: formal. 8- 12PM _

Zach turned to me, grinned, and opened his mouth.

"Zach," I said, knowing what my twin was going to suggest. "No."

**(A/N: Ahhhh. My brain is dead. I'm sorry for the suckish chapter. I don't think I have anything to put. Except.. No. Nothing. oh wait!! I made a 96 on the English test! So yay. I still don't know about the paper, but at least I'm making an A right now. For the record, that class is SUPER hard. Not many people make As in there. So this is a big thing.)**


	22. Chapter 22

"Zach," I said again, just as steady as the first time. "I am not going to that dance."

"C'mon Val. It'll be fun. All our old friends, the teachers..."

"No." I snapped. "It wouldn't be _our_ friends, or _our_ teachers. It'd be _my_ friends, and _my_ teachers. They'd recognize me. You didn't go to high school there, and you only see some of the guys over Christmas or during the summer. You wouldn't have a problem."

"Don't worry sis. Cammie can probably teach you a few tricks. And besides, it's not like you'll be spending the night with them or anything."

I knew I didn't have a choice. Nothing I could say would make him change his mind. I hated when Zach got like this.

For the next thirty minutes, the girls and I ran around, dressing up, doing our hair and makeup, and all that fun stuff (not!). I got done pretty quick, and sat next to Cammie. She was in a simple black dress, and her hair was in this fancy style Macey had done. I had washed mine, and let it dry naturally, so it was curling (and still damp). I had a dress similar to Cammie's, but it had tank top sleeves and a pink bow in the back. Macey had on a green dress, Liz was in blue, and Bex was in purple. Cammie and I watched as they searched for shoes and purses. I looked over at Cammie and she rolled her eyes. I laughed and grabbed the pink bag that went with my dress. Cammie whistled, and they shut up. She started handing out the gear Macey had brought back while we packed our purses with stuff that supported our covers. I was Debbi. My mom owned a cosmetics company, so my purse had nail polish, makeup, and lotion (I had thrown the nail polish in there - it wasn't part of my secret spy gear stuff). Once everyone was ready, we followed Cammie (Laura) down the hall. Liz (Molly) was chattering, and I could tell she was nervous. Bex (Jen) seemed fine, but then again, it was dark and she was, after all, a spy.

We managed to get out of the school alive, and Macey (Hannah) took off in search of a van. Minutes later, she came back with one, and we climbed in. Cammie's phone went off, and during the conversation, she didn't look too happy.

"What's up?" Bex asked the second she hung up.

"That was Anna. They weren't told about the dance, so they ended up going shopping. They all had tails. Anna thinks she was the only one that managed to get away."

"Did she use the same trick she used at the Mall?" Bex asked.

Cammie nodded. "She locked her tail in a closet," She clarified for me. "So I think we should go there first. I told Anna what our covers were. She said she'd tell anyone she saw. We're meeting her at the East exit." Macey nodded and turned onto the main road. We rode in silence until Zach (Dan) spoke up.

"So what's our goal, exactly?"

"Get in, get the girls, and get out. We're expected at the dance." She skipped a beat. "Looks like there's more to it than a 'social gathering'."

***

We left the van in pairs. First Bex and Grant (Ray), then Macey and I. We were followed by Liz and Jonas (Chris), and Cammie and Zach followed at the back. Anna was waiting by the exit sign, and waved when she saw us. We waved back, and to someone that didn't know, we probably looked like a bunch of friends meeting at the mall. I guess we were. It just wasn't exactly by choice.

"Okay," Anna whispered. "Be careful. I got a tail coming down here. I think I lost him, but I dunno. We split up and went into different dress shops. There's only one place to get suits here, so all the boys went there. I don't get it. Once we put on the fancy clothes, we started getting tails. Tina talked about leaving the mall, but the comms stopped working before she decided. "

Cammie sighed. Bex looked mad. Liz looked scared. Macey looked bored, and I was confused.

"So wait, why do we have covers?" I asked, ever the newbie.

"So you have something to hide behind," Cammie explained.

I nodded. "And why are we going to this dance?"

"There must be something going on. Why else would they have tails on us?" Zach replied, answering my question with a question. I rolled my eyes.

"You're the spy, remember?"

"Yep. I do, actually. Now let's move."

***

I always loved spy movies. You know, the girl (or boy, but I liked the girl ones better) gets in a bad position, and then uses brain skills or physical skills, or both, to outsmart the bad guys. They get away and save the day.

Yeah, it's not that easy.

Macey and I had a tail. Or two. And we knew it. The problem was getting rid of them. We'd gone up escalators, and down elevators, in stores and out windows (yes, in our dresses). We were pretty much out of possibilities, places to run to. We passed a vending machine and I pulled a dollar out of my purse. As I checked my options, Cammie ran up behind me. I stuck the dollar in the machine, and she grabbed my wrist.

"Trust me on this one," She whispered, using my hand to push D16. It was a Sprite, so I was okay, but I looked at Cammie. She put her finger to her lips, and then pointed to the change slot. I bent down to get it, and heard a sliding noise. All of a sudden, I remembered the vending machine back at the school. I think I had ordered D16 there too. I threw the change into my open purse, and turned around. Sure enough, the wall behind the machine was sliding up, leaving a staircase. Cammie ran up it, followed by Macey. Zach stood there, looking down the hall.

"Zach?" I asked quietly. "Are you going?"

He shook his head. "They're still out there."

"Who?" I said, figuring he meant the tails.

"Grant and Jonas, and the girls." He turned to look at me. "We can't go up."

"I know. I'm going to text Liz and tell her how to get in. They'll be fine."

"What if they--"

"No what ifs. Go, unless you want our tails to catch up." I looked down the hall as I said this, and Zach got the message. He started up the stairs, and I was close behind when I heard my (cover) name.

"Deb!" It was Liz. "Wait please." I waited, and she ran up to me.

"What's going on?"

"I think we lost them," She panted.

"Well, just to be sure, go up there. I'll follow you guys." I said, nodding towards the staircase. I could see Zach's feet; he was listening.

Liz ran up the stairs, followed by Bex, Jonas, and Grant. I looked behind me and stepped onto the first stair. Just like at school, I could hear the panel moving back down to hide the secret staircase.

***

The staircase led to the roof where a helicopter was waiting (Zach had let them know where we were going). We had got in touch with the other girls (and boys) from our school, and they had gone up what we were now referring to as the D16 staircase. After about ten minutes, we got the right head count, and started for the dance.

**(A/N: Sorry it took so long. I've got some news. Yay. One, remember that little kitty I told you about? Well, we know the people that run this No-Kill shelter, and my dad called the lady, and she said she'd take him. (: So we caught him in a Have-A-Heart trap, and took him to the vet. SO YAY! :D Two, I'm not switching point of view. Maybe in a different story, somewhere down the line (I've got an idea for another one..), but NOT in this one. Kay? Kay. Three, I'm off all next week! Four, I've finally convinced my mom to let me get a laptop. This will allow me to easily type in my room. So cue the yaying. Five, OMG only 12 or so days until State. Six, I need a nap. -_- )**


	23. Chapter 23

"I officially hate you," I said darkly, glaring at Zach. He just smiled.

"You can't hate me," he replied, draping his arm over my shoulder. "You're my sister."

"So?"

"It's in the rules."

"What rules?!" I moved, causing his arm to fall.

"_The_ rules."

"Whatever!" I rolled my eyes at Cammie, and she smiled.

"Let's go." Cammie said then. "It won't look good if we're late." Zach pulled the door to open, and Cammie started in. I followed her, and everyone else followed us. I noticed a couple people turn when we walked in. Then I saw people do double takes, and I wondered if they recognized me. Or Zach.

"It's just because we look good," Macey whispered in my ear. "They don't suspect a thing."

I grinned at her, and she flipped her hair over her shoulder with a wink, causing any male under the age of eighteen and within a ten foot radius to look like he was about to pass out. It was pretty great.

***

I was right to suspect that we were doing more than dancing and being social. About two hours into the dance, a group of kids came in. "Talk about late," Cammie whispered into my ear as she passed. I laughed, counted to thirty, faked a cough, and whispered into my comms unit.

"Does anyone else get the feeling that those kids are up to something?"

Cammie was dancing with Zach, and I was with Alan, much to Zach's dislike. We weren't together or anything, just friends. Cammie and Zach came up beside us, and in a preppy voice, Cammie giggled and suggested we trade partners. I laughed, and we switched.

"Okay, what's up?" I asked Zach the minute we were dancing again.

"Everyone's listening, right?" Zach said more into his comms unit than to me. I heard a couple of coughs, a laugh, and one "well duh", and as I scanned the room, I saw a few kids catch my eye and nod.

"We're good."

"Okay. Those kids that just came in, they are not supposed to be here. I say we trade partners or dance with them, so that one of us is with each of them. We outnumber them, so dance in pairs and stay close to the two main guys. Okay? The song's about to end. And go." Zach and I split up, and slowly made our way over to the new kids. Zach took one of the stronger looking girls, while Cammie and Bex nabbed the guys that looked like they were in charge. I smiled at the one that had been standing by them, and he walked over.

"Care to dance?" He asked.

"Sure." When we got out onto the dance floor, I started with the questions. "What's your name?"

"David. What's yours?"

"I'm Debbi," I replied, sticking to my code name and hoping the others were doing the same. "What school are you from?"

"Well, there's only two schools here, and I'm not from yours, so what does that leave?" He grinned.

"Oh, so you're new?" He raised an eyebrow, and I continued. "I used to go to the other school, up until this year. Well, up until Christmas. So you're that new?"

"Uh, yeah. So why weren't you at the mall?" He tried to change the subject, and my brain clicked into full on spy mode.

"How do you know I wasn't at the mall?" I asked, and through my comms unit, I heard Cammie take a sharp breath after being asked a similar question.

"Well, we were there, and I didn't see you." The poor guy looked a little flustered, and someone came and cut in. This guy looked taller, and smiled.

"Hi."

"Um, hi?" I switched into a ditzy blonde role. "Do I know you?"

"I don't think so. I'm Harper."

"Hi Harper. I'm Debbi. Do you have a sister?"

"Uh," he paused for a second, "No. Why?"

"Oh, I was thinking maybe I recognized you because you looked like her."

He shook his head, and a girl that used to be in my history class tapped me on the shoulder. I turned, and she smiled.

"Hi, can I cut in?"

"Sure, why not." I said, relieved that she didn't recognize me.

They took off, and I made my way over to the punch bowl. I could hear my friends talking to their dance partners, and as the song ended, I heard one ask Cammie if she wanted punch. I quickly whispered, "Cammie, say yes!" and he started over. She followed slowly, and kept an eye on him and me.

"Hi," I said as he approached.

"'lo." He slowly poured himself some punch, and poured one for Cammie. He looked up, caught my eye, and whispered, "shh" before pulling something out of his jacket pocket. I saw it was a small bottle, and from my training, I knew it was a truth syrup. He poured it into Cammie's drink, and saw me watching him. "Don't say anything, aight? She's hot and it's our last night here."

It took me a second before I realized that he thought I thought it was something totally different, so I nodded. "Good luck." I said, winking. He grinned, and I couldn't help but think that he would need it. "Cammie, it's got truth syrup in it, don't drink it!" She coughed in reply, and I saw Zach stiffen. I slipped out of the room and made my way to the bathroom.

"Okay, guys, here's the plan." I whispered into my comms unit as I walked quickly down the hallway. "Cammie, he's pretending that he spiked your drink. He did, but not with what he's pretending he did. It probably has something in it to make you loosen up, so act like it. Get him out into the foyer, and distract him. We can knock him out there, and Bex, I think they're going to do the same thing to you. Zach, that girl will probably act like she wants to get outside with you, so play along. Stagger your exits, and be ready to duck." I pushed open the bathroom door and saw one of the stalls was closed. I let the sink run for a few minutes, muttered something about "stupid punch that will stain my dress", pulled out my phone, and tapped the keys, then opened the door and softened my steps so it sounded like I was leaving. The second the door banged shut, I heaved myself up onto the counter and quietly took off my heels. The girl in the stall must have been fooled by it, because she started talking again.

"Stupid chick came in with a stain on her dress. Anyway. Marcus, "David" is a stupid code name. You don't look like a David. Find that girl and give her some punch. Harper, you shouldn't have used your real name. Ditch that loser girl that cut in. Don, make sure that girl drinks that punch, and take her out asap. And Linda, get that guy out of the dance. He's good. I'll be waiting in the foyer, behind a plant or something, so don't pay attention to movement. I'm shutting my comms off so I can pee. Start in five."

When she flushed the toilet, I stood up on the counter, and crouched down, ready to jump. She wasn't really paying attention, and I was able to push her down before I jumped. I felt bad for a second, because it was totally unfair, but then I realized that she was planning seriously hurt my friends. And me. That's when I stopped feeling bad. I stuck a patch on her, and drug her into the stall she was in. Using stuff I found on her, I tied her to the toilet, and thanked goodness that I had thought to put on gloves, so they couldn't trace my fingerprints. Speaking of fingerprints, I opened my purse, and found the little ink pad and paper booklet that Liz had fashioned as a compact. I also took her comms unit, turned it on, and stuck it in my other ear.

"You back?" Someone whispered. I coughed. "Is there someone in the room with you?" I coughed again. "Okay. We're starting." I coughed one more time before taking it out and talking into the other one.

"Okay, they're starting their extraction plan. I knocked out their head girl. I'll be in the foyer, but they think _she'll_ be the one that's there. So keep that in mind." I quietly slipped out into the hallway, and made my way back to the foyer. It was empty. I assumed it was the doing of the girl I had knocked out. Cool. I slipped behind one of the plants, and stuck my hand into my purse. Just then, Cammie and Don walked out, and my hand closed around the nail polish bottle I had stuck in there.

"So, where are we going?" Cammie asked in a ditzy, girly voice that didn't go with what I knew about her.

"Where ever you want to."

"Hehehehe!" Cammie giggled, playing the part well. "How about upstairs? Do you have a room here?"

"Actually, I do. Let's go." He started toward the elevator, but Cammie pulled him back.

"Stairs!" I whispered.

"Let's go up the stairs." She said in a _very_un-Cammie like flirty voice. "Elevators are gross."

"Have it your way."

"Yay!" She pulled him toward the stairs, and I heard him in the comms unit I had taken from the girl (I had turned the mike off, so I was safe).

"She'll be in the stairwell."

"Not on my watch," I muttered quietly, too quietly for the comms mike to pick up. As they neared my hiding spot, I whispered to Cammie to slow down, and stop to the right of me. She did so, and when he stopped, I saw him reach his hand into his pocket. I strained to see what he was holding, and almost fell over when I realized what he planned to do. Almost on instinct, I whipped my hand out of my purse and chunked the nail polish at him. My gym coach would have been proud - the bottle hit him hard in the soft spot of his head. I stepped out of the bushes, and helped a slightly stunned Cammie drag him to a closet. We stuck a patch on him, just to be on the safe side. She bent down and froze.

"This is what he was going to use on me?!" I heard the terror in her voice and just nodded.

"Thank goodness you were there." She stuck it in a bag in her purse, and we climbed back into the bushes. I thought about what would have happened if I _hadn't _been there. He had a syringe full something that I could only guess would temporarily paralyze Cammie. We had studied it in school, and it wasn't good. It made me wonder what else they had stored away, and why that girl in the bathroom didn't have any. Had she already used it? If Cammie and I couldn't stop them in time, would they use it right in front of us? I shuddered at the thought as Zach and the girl walked out.

**(A/N: Eh. I tried. It's not that great. I tried to make this one longer. Intersession in a week. Braces come off in 10 days. I'm going to Regional UIL. Oh boy. Poetry project due tomorrow. Review please. Why do people never review anymore? (thanks to those that DO review. Grr to those that don't) I'll try to get the next chapter out soon.)**


	24. Chapter 24

**(A/N: Okay, so I went back and edited chapter 1, because people were reading it and stopping. Go back and read the end of it please. Thanks.)**

I felt Cammie stiffen. I looked from her to the girl Zach was holding hands with, and knew she was a bit mad. I couldn't blame her. If _my _boyfriend was holding hands with a pretty girl, I'd be a little mad too. Not that I had a boyfriend... Which I don't... But I could. Technically. I mean... Wait. I'm confused. Anyway, Zach was like, supporting that girl, but I knew (which meant that Cammie definitely knew) that she was was totally pretending. She must have been an actress though (you know, when she wasn't spending time being an evil spy), because she almost had me fooled. I felt a little bad knowing Cammie or I would have to knock her out, because she seemed so, I don't know, pitiful.

Unfortunately, the split second that Cammie and I wasted thinking about that girl was the split second she dropped to the ground. Zach was for once unprepared, and lost his balance. I felt my eyes get wide as she pulled him down while pulling herself up. Now my brother was on the floor, and the girl named Linda was standing above him. She pulled out what looked like a cell phone, and started typing.

"Uh oh," Cammie muttered as Linda lifted her right foot and placed the heel of her stilettos over his back. I knew as well as Cammie did that we couldn't run out there and try to stop her. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the comms unit.

"Stop!" I hissed into it, trying to sound like the girl in the bathroom. "We need him alive. And awake. Just like, stand there or something. Tie his hands if you want, but _don't_ hurt him."

"WHAT?!" Linda said out loud. "That takes all the fun out of it!"

"I don't care. Don't do it."

"Well then can you come get him or something? It'll mess everything up if he's here."

I thought quickly as Zach looked around. Luckily, the girl hadn't found his comms unit yet, and she had put her foot down. "Yeah. Keep your back to the bushes though. He's good, and will use even a second of your distraction to get away."

"Fine."

"I'm coming now, don't move." With that, Cammie handed me a patch and I crept out of the bushes. I have to give her credit - she had a lot of trust for her teammates. She only turned around when my shoe squeaked. I guess the head girl's shoes never squeaked. It didn't matter though. Cammie was right behind me, and Zach really did use her distracted state to get out of the way. Another win for us.

***

The rest were easy. With three of us waiting, and the part about me controlling their movements, they didn't stand a chance. I guess they could have pulled a Terminator and driven through the window, but they didn't. So we won. We won so bad that I'm not even going to brag about it. The teachers came to get the bad guys (and girls), I remembered to tell them about the girl in the bathroom, and we went back into the dance like nothing had ever happened. (Although later that night we were reminded of it, when some kid drank out of the "spiked" drink Cammie had switched out with a clean one, and started blurting secrets.)

It was after midnight when I looked from the friends that knew me, to the friends that used to know me, and wondered how things would have been different if I had never left. Would Kingston still have visited? And would I have seen Zach? Would I have messed things up? And what would have happened if the bad guys knew Zach and I were related and used me to get to him? Finally, I understood what my parents had meant about the whole weak-link thing.

"Debbi!" Cammie called, using my cover name because she was shouting across the room. "Come here!" Her smile was wide and real, and her hand was in Zach's. _Life was good again_, I thought as I crossed the room full of the girls I had spent every day with before I switched schools. It was amazing that none of them suspected a thing. It was a little depressing that none of them recognized me though. I would have liked to think I had made somewhat of an impact on my friend's lives.

"So it's all over." Cammie said with somewhat of a serious face.

"It is?" I asked, looking around.

"Well no," Cammie laughed. "We still have the debrief, and reports, and if we're lucky, we may get to talk to them."

Zach shook his head. "We won't get to. It'd be cool though."

"Shh. Let me be excited for a while."

We laughed, and I noticed a couple of people glance over at us. Cammie pointed towards a white backdrop. A photographer was taking pictures of groups or couples, so we went over. I could picture how we looked. Best friends standing in a group, laughing and having a blast. Forget about the fact that we could have gotten killed earlier (the stuff in Linda's shoe turned out to be deadly). Forget about the fact that someone was after us.

Forget about our whole lives.

Sure, then the picture fits. What ever happened to the saying "pictures don't lie"?

***

I realized the next day that because we had taken that picture, it was out there somewhere. Somewhere other than my wall, and the wall in Cammie, Bex, and Liz's room. I hoped it wouldn't come back to haunt us.

**(A/N: Review please! Sorry it's lame. And sorry it took forev., my friend and I were stage managers of the Talent Show. It was crazy fun, and we were crazy busy. Also school (well, LIFE) in general has been busy. Yay to all A's. Yay to summer. Yay to you, for reading. Yay to me for finishing. Yay to.. to.. *head drops from exhaustion* ZZZzZZzzzzZzzz.)**


	25. Chapter 25

The weeks passed, some slowly, some quickly. Winter faded into spring, and was getting ready to move on to summer. Coats and hoodies were traded for slip on jackets and vests, and long sleeved tops were traded for short sleeved ones. My decorating hobby had caught on, and by now, almost every girl had at least one hand decorated top. I was thinking about starting decorationg shoes. I was actually making a list when Cammie ran in, followed closely by Bex. I watched open-mouthed as Bex tackled Cammie onto one of the beds. Liz ran in thirty seconds later, and tried to pull Bex off of Cammie, but it didn't work out too well (and that's being nice). I would have helped, but they were both laughing, so I felt sure that Bex wouldn't kill Cammie.

Or at least I hoped so.

"Um, guys?" I said.

"Don't even bother. They won't listen to you."

I looked over at Liz. She blushed.

"No! I didn't mean they wouldn't listen to _you_. They won't listen to anyone. I don't even know what they're fighting over."

"GIVE. IT. BACK!" Bex gasped, still laughing.

"NEVER!!" Cammie cried, being overly dramatic.

"WOAH!" Liz yelled. Cammie and Bex froze. I just stood there. It was pretty shocking to hear Liz use that tone of voice. "Stop it. One of you give Val the disk." Cammie silently handed it to me. I just looked at her. "Val." I turned to Liz. "Load this on your laptop. We're trying to access Blackthorne's records, but I can't create a distraction and get the files at the same time."

"So you want me to be the distraction?"

She nodded. "And that," Liz pointed at the disk in my hand, "is the best firewall program I've ever made. Your computer will be safe."

"Alright. Now?" I asked, moving to my laptop. Liz nodded. They watched as I put it in the drive and started downloading the files. In minutes, I was logging into the Blackthorne database, with Liz right behind me. I started messing around while Liz navigated to the part of the site she needed. After a few minutes, a box popped up on my screen telling me that I had a new email.

"Uh?"

"What's wrong?" Liz asked.

"Someone on this site just emailed me."

"That's weird!" She said, looking up. "You don't even belong there."

"Yeah..." I trailed off and clicked on the READ NOW button.

_From: _

_To: _

_Subject: Testing Materials _

_Lucy, _

_Rm. 228 is out of paper towels. The Gallagher girls in the class keep using them. They seem to hate getting acid anywhere near them. Babies. _

_Add this to their total expenses list. I want to win the bet. _

_--Donald_

"Well that was weird..." I said, looking up.

"What happened?" Cammie asked, coming to sit by me.

"I think there's a bet going on about how expensive we are."

Cammie laughed. "Wow. It looks like it. How much is the bet?"

"No idea. Hang on." I clicked on the REPLY button, and started typing.

_From: _

_To: _

_Subject: RE: Testing Materials_

_Donald,_

_Will do. How much was the bet for again? _

_-Lucy _

Cammie, who had been looking over my shoulder, laughed. "Nice."

***

"So can you believe that they have a four hundred dollar bet that we'd spend more than the boys?" Cammie said, finishing the story. We had gathered all the girls together in the dining hall. I looked around, and saw lots of wide eyes. We had not only found out the amount of the bet, but also that the girls currently were losing by fifty dollars. While Liz had finished up getting the information she needed, Cammie, Bex, Macey, and I had come up with a plan to increase the boys' spending by a lot. We didn't want to have to lower the girls' spending, but it looked like we might have to.

"Don't leave the light on if you can help it, and don't shut off lights in the boys' rooms. Little things like that will matter, trust me." Liz said with a laugh.

"And if you can get into any guy's room, use stuff up. Like tissues. Or take a roll of toilet paper. It'll cut down on our expenses and increase theirs." Macey said with a grin.

Ten minutes later, as everyone was leaving, I looked over at Cammie. "Do you feel bad about rigging it like this?"

She shook her head, and then shrugged. "Not really. The boys probably know about it." She paused for a few seconds. "Okay, I do feel a little bad. But oh well." She laughed and stood up. "Come on. Let's go steal toilet paper."

"IT WAS JUST AN EXAMPLE!" Macey yelled, and I laughed. This could be interesting.

***

I always liked the library. It was quiet and peaceful. I could spend hours in there (it's been proven). So naturally it was the place I chose to go to when my roommates were loud. After about half an hour, things got too quiet. I sensed movement next to me, and felt someone looking at me. I turned around slowly, and let out the breath I'd been holding.

**(A/N: Sorry it's short... I ran out of things to do. I'm not reading the third GG book until I finish this story. AH. So I'm going to write like CRAZY. Um. I broke up with my boyfriend. Haha. He was really mad. Oh well. Then when I went to England [IT WAS AMAZING!], he hit on two of my best friends. Sloppy seconds much? Bleh. I wanna go back to Chicago [we stopped there on our way back from England]. Reviews? Love you.) **


	26. Chapter 26

"Okay, you scared me." I said, putting my hand to my heart for dramatic effect. "What's up?"

"Um.. What are you working on?" Zach was stalling for time, and I knew it.

"That huge research paper we got like, a week ago."

"Why? It's not due until next week."

"Yeah, but I want it done. Besides, Cammie's with her mom, Bex and Macey are with Tina and everyone watching movies, and Liz is downstairs finishing up her prototype of the Bo-" I stopped. Zach wasn't supposed to know about the Boy-to-English watch translator. "Uh, not important. Hey, will you sit down? You're making me nervous." I said, pushing out the chair across from me with my feet."

"Val, there's something you should know." Zach said carefully, sitting down. I looked over at him and put my finger to my lips. I didn't need to hear whatever he was going to say now. "Val, really. Listen to me."

"What do you want, Zach?" I said with a sigh.

"It's about our parents."

"What about them?" Somewhere deep inside me, I had a vague idea of where this conversation was going, but I forced myself to not believe it.

"They're... They're dead, and have been for a long time. The people that have been raising us are CIA officials, and volunteered to take care of us." Zach looked directly at me.

"Okay, one, if this is a joke, it's so not funny. Two, how do you know this?!" I knew it wasn't a joke. Even _Zach _wouldn't joke about something like that.

"When I came to Blackthorne, the teachers acted funny around me. Not enough for the other kids to notice, but just enough. Finally, I went to Dr. Steve, asking what was going on, and him and the CoveOps teacher told me. We were like five." He paused, and I put the puzzle pieces together.

"That's when we went to Disney, wasn't it? Our parents had meetings there, and we ran around all day with a babysitter they hired. Then they didn't come back to the room that night, and Kayla? Was that her name?" Zach nodded, and I continued. "Kayla told us that they were running late, and we should stay up for them. So we played board games in the room, and made that huge tent. We fell asleep before midnight. The next morning, Kayla was there again, and told us that our parents had come home, and left early that morning. I didn't think anything about it then, but now I remember Kayla looking worried and checking her cell phone every time she thought we weren't looking." I could feel my eyes tearing up. "She knew that they didn't come home."

Zach nodded. "And then our parents seemed different when they finally came back."

"Mom smelled different." I said suddenly, remembering my childhood thoughts.

"And the let us get all types of candy and toys. We thought they were just spoiling us. Turns out they felt bad about what happened."

"Wait, what did happen?" I looked up at Zach.

"They don't know. Or, they haven't told me. Maybe a meeting went wrong?" Zach shrugged.

"Yes, deadly coffee mugs and ballpoint pens." I rolled my eyes. "Maybe the meetings weren't really meetings."

"Could be."

"Have you looked for anything about it?" I asked, scooting over to my laptop.

"Like what? CIA operatives go missing in top secret mission? Yeah, Val. There's a headline for you."

I sighed. "You know what I mean." Even as I said it, I knew he didn't. I didn't even know what I meant. I just wanted some information. Not that I didn't trust my brother. I just wanted more proof. Proof that could cement what Zach told me. Proof that would make me give up any hope I was trying to hold on to.

"Val." I looked up at him. "It'll be okay. The people that raised us will still be there for us. They don't go on many missions."

Zach had a point. I could only remember a handful of times that they had actually left. "They don't know that we know?" I asked. Zach shook his head. I sighed again. I knew that there was nothing I could do to change the past, and I'd just have to move on.

"Val, there's one other thing."

"Uh oh."

"Remember last summer, when you were told that you were coming here?" Zach paused, and I nodded. "Well, we told you that it was because you were a weak link, and while that's true, it was really because of our parents. Our real parents."

"What about them?" I asked, getting a weird feeling in my stomach.

"If they were killed for a reason, then whoever did it may be out to get us too." He paused, thinking. It looked like he was debating whether or not to continue. Finally, he sighed and started talking again. "I made the final decision. I'm sorry sis. I know you were happy at our old school. I just couldn't think about losing you too. Everyone was starting to say that you'd be protected enough at a normal school if you had some self defense classes under your belt, and how it'd be a great cover and stuff, but it wasn't the same. I wanted to tell you about our parents, and I wanted you here. Where I could watch you, and protect you if I had to. I owe that to Mom and Dad."

I was quiet for a minute, thinking. "I guess I'm okay with that. I do like it here. So thanks. And I think I can protect myself now." I stood up. "I'm going to grab a snack from the kitchen. Want to come?"

Zach held my gaze for a thirty seconds before nodding. I think he realized that the invitation was meant as a peace offering. He is a spy after all, something he loves to point out.

**(A/N: So I had like 900 words, and then because time ran out on my document, I lost it. I only had like 500, which is what I had saved in Word. -_- And I can't remember what I've already written. To save time, I'm just going to write, and if I repeat anything from previous chapters, or if something clashes with what I've already written, let me know, and I'll change it. Thanks! Four more chappies to go!)**


	27. Chapter 27

That night, after everyone had brushed their teeth and washed their face, put on their pajamas and turned off the lights, I sat in bed thinking. I thought for a long time (and I was rewarded with dark rings under my eyes the next morning). So long, in fact, that when Zach texted me at one in the morning to meet him in the hall, I just grabbed my robe and slipped out of the room.

"That was fast." Zach said quietly, making me jump.

"I was up. And thanks for the heart attack."

"No problem. What are brothers for?"

I extended my arm in the direction of his voice, and, according to the "oomph", I made contact. "What? I thought I punched like a girl." I said, remembering his comment from years ago.

"Not the girls I know. That didn't really hurt though." Zach said, playing the tough guy.

"Mhmm. Whatever. What did you want?" I said, yawning.

"School's almost over." Zach said, and then paused. The pause was long enough that I realized he wanted a reply. So I gave him one.

"No duh."

"Val." I could feel him looking at me.

"Zach. Spit it out already. I'm tired."

"Okay. School's almost out. We go home. We have to be careful about what we say and do when we're with our friends. They can't know about anything."

I yawned again. "I know Zach. I'll be careful. I won't say anything about seeing my friends at the dance. I won't say anything about the missions. I'll be good. Promise."

"Right. Night Val."

"Night Zach." I slipped back into my room, thinking about nothing except sleep. Thank you Zach.

***

Note to self: Do not stay up until one thirty the day before finals. Any finals. But especially not when the two lovely finals you get to take involve chemicals (Chemistry and it's Espionage Usages) and combat (Cove-Ops). Oops. I drank about four cups of coffee to make up for it (because I didn't think tea would be strong enough), and didn't fall asleep during the CEU test. Zach, on the other hand, must have stayed up way later than me, because he fell asleep while heating up what he thought was water... Yeah. He used up like a whole roll of towels cleaning _that _up. (Liz and I checked that night to make sure that it was added to the boy's expense total; it was. That meant that the girls were winning. Yay Zach.)

The Cove-Ops test was unfortunately scheduled after lunch, so none of us ate much. We figured that it would be either really hard or really easy, because we knew about it. Personally, I was hoping for the really easy, because the caffeine had worn off, leaving me exhausted. Cammie poked me and glanced over at Zach, who had his head down and was snoring. I laughed, and then realized that sleeping was probably a good use of my time. I checked my watch - 30 minutes left in lunch, enough for a power nap - grabbed my stuff and power-walked to my room. I remembered to set my alarm, and crashed.

For once, I didn't hit the snooze button, which was good, or I would have been very late. I ran downstairs to wake myself up, and met Cammie, Bex, and Macey at the Cove-Ops elevator door.

"Where were you?" Cammie asked as we stepped inside and got our retinas scanned (the first time that had happened, I freaked out so bad. Now I hardly noticed. Well, as hardly as you can notice something when it's shining in your eye... But still).

"Sleeping." I said honestly. Cammie just looked at me. "I was!" She started to say something, but shook her head instead. I grinned and leaned back against the elevator wall. As the doors opened, I got a glimpse of our classroom. The usual tables and chairs had been replaced by computer desks with dividers in place - no peeking at your neighbor. Each desk had a laptop, equipped only with headphones and a mouse. The screens all showed a black background with student names in white. I glanced over at Cammie. She shrugged and led the way into the room. We found our names and sat down. Zach came in a minute later and sat next to me (alphabetical order by last name, duh we were together). He slipped on his headphones and clicked the mouse. I was leaning back in my chair to watch him, and I saw the screen change. It was the directions to the test. Zach glanced at me and shrugged. I shrugged back, and did the same thing he had done.

The way the test worked, I learned, was you had one chance on each question. You had to go in order, and you couldn't skip any. It didn't tell you if you were right or wrong, you just kept going. I leaned back again, and Zach caught my eye. He mouthed "good luck", and I did too. Then I scooted in and started the test. A video started playing. It was from a security camera. I automatically started counting the seconds until it was over. That was the best thing I could have done, next to actually watching it (which I did too).

_Question 1: How long was the clip? [Note: Answers within a three second range will be accepted.] _

A set of numbers showed up on the screen, and I clicked on the nine first, and then the two (92 seconds), hoping I was doing it right. Keeping my fingers crossed, I hit next.

_Question 2: Yes or No, was the third girl to buy something wearing a jacket? _

I clicked no.

Another video started playing, and forty five seconds later, I was asked if any animals were shown (yes - two dogs and four cats), if the second clerk was bald (no, that was the first; the second had long curly hair), and if anything was stolen (yes, a pack of gum). The video-question process repeated itself for about an hour, and then the screen when black. I waited for thirty seconds, and clicked the mouse. Next to me, Zach stood up. A message appeared on the screen, telling me to go to the second Cove-Ops room. I clicked again, and followed Zach.

***

"This is insane." I stated as Zach and I looked over our instruction packets. We had been instructed to pick one up as we walked in, and had been directed all over the school by them (take ten steps, turn right. Go to the next hallway, turn left). Now, an hour later, we were back at the elevator door. Cammie showed up while we were waiting.

"So what's up with these directions?" She asked, out of breath.

"No clue. Are you okay?" I asked as we stepped into the elevator.

"Yeah, I'm good. I had to back track, and then realized that it might have been timed, so I ran back." Cammie rolled her eyes and I laughed. "So hey, in the fourth video, the one with the pet shop? I spaced out for a couple seconds. Did they sell four or five fish?"

"Four," I said, at the same time Zach said, "Five." I looked at him. "Uh oh." I muttered.

"Darn. I put four, but now I don't know." Cammie said as we stepped out of the elevator. We were the first ones back, and the directions stopped with "Sit down." So we did.

**(A/N: So here's the thing. I'll post this chapter, and two more. That will make 29 chappies, and that'll end this story. I'll read GG3 and post an epilogue that can tie this one to the next one, along with some stuff that happened over the summer. That'll make my goal of 30 chappies. KK? Kk. Review please. I'm trying to finish SOOOON. Like by Wednesday. Or tomorrow. Or today. EEP.)**


	28. Chapter 28

**(A/N: Okay, so I cheated and read the third book. SO. There is one TINY spoiler, that you won't even catch, but it will give me a place that I can tie the sequel into. If I write one. I'm not too sure now. But I'm working on it. So yeah, baby spoiler, sorry.)**

Twenty minutes later, we were still sitting. Only now, the rest of the class was sitting too. I kept looking around for the teacher, and wishing I had eaten something, because it didn't look like we were going to be doing anything.

Just as I thought that, I heard footsteps. Everyone else did too, and sat up straighter. Purses and bags went on the floor, and shoes were put back on (Cammie and I had been comparing socks - don't ask). The footsteps continued right into our classroom.

"Hey!" Cammie whispered. I looked at her, but she shook her head.

"Close your eyes."

We did so (or, I did. I don't know about anyone else. My eyes were closed). I could hear whoever it was that had walked in walking around. Then I felt a blindfold go over my eyes. 'Great. This must me part two,' I thought. A few minutes later, the person I assumed was the teacher stopped walking around.

"I hope you were paying attention. Go to the fourth stop on your directions. Do not remove the blindfold. Further instructions will be given when you arrive." The teacher's footsteps echoed down the hall as he walked away. I scooted my chair back and stood up, hoping like crazy that I knew where I was going.

"Val?" I heard Cammie say. I turned to look at her (or face her, even though she couldn't see, and neither could I).

"Yeah?"

"Isn't the fourth stop the heli-pad?"

"Uh oh." Zach muttered.

"Let's go."

***

After twenty minutes of carefully making our way through the halls, we came to a set of doors I only hoped were the right ones. We had learned so far that _careful_ takes on a whole new meaning when you're walking through the halls of a SPY SCHOOL (i.e. a mansion filled with things that were once used as weapons, or could be used as weapons now. Most of these could be classified as sharp and pointy, and running into them isn't fun.) blindfolded. (Note to self: do not attempt alone.)

"This is it." Zach said, and I felt Cammie nod. Turns out they were right, because about five minutes later, all the blindfolds were being pulled off our heads.

"Good. You made it." Mr. Soloman said. "Part two." He started toward a helicopter that was landing (which is why we had been standing far away from the landing pad; we knew one would show up).

We flew for a while. I didn't even know where we were when we landed. It was like a huge park. There was a stage set up, but I didn't know what anyone would use it for. Our mission was simple, yet a bit complicated: get to the center of the stage by 5:00 PM without a tail. The simple part was that something similar had been done before. The complicated part was actually two problems. One, the stage was in plain sight, so a tail could find us EASY. And two, you had to have a really good reason to be on said stage.

We split up - Cammie and Bex, Macey and I - Zach went off somewhere with Grant, and I didn't see him again until Macey and I climbed out of a window and saw him talking to Soloman. He looked really serious, but Macey pulled me away, thinking our tail had seen us (he had, but we lost him again in this really fancy wishing well thing... Apparently, you can drop a penny in one of the holes in the floor, and if you look up, you can see people dropping money in from the outside. It was pretty cool).

At 4:30, Macey and I were tail free, so we ran over to the stage. We were stopped (of course), but Macey flashed a very real looking access pass (turns out it was real, just not for this place), and along with recognizing her as Macey McHenry, we got on.

And down.

See, the stage was made where you could access it from the floor, so we crept underneath the stage until we reached the microphone. Sure enough, Mr. Soloman was standing there.

Looking impressed.

Unfortunately "Well done ladies" was all he said before we were directed to go back to the helicopter.

Turns out Macey and I were the only ones to make it, aside from Zach, who had gotten seperated from Grant. Yay us!

***

My roommates had left by the time I got back and finished packing, so I looked around for anything left over, shut off the light and closed the door. I kept my key out so I could turn it in, but at the last minute, I slipped it in my pocket and kept walking. As I put my bags on the cart that would take them to where parents were waiting, I saw Cammie wave at me. I waved back and ran over.

"I can't believe this is goodbye!" Liz said, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm going to miss you all so much." I looked over at Cammie, who rolled her eyes and smiled. The rest of us were dealing with the looming separation tear-free.

"Liz, it'll be okay. We'll all see each other again next fall." I said, giving her a hug.

"Yeah, Liz. It'll be fine." Cammie said, coming up beside me. "Besides, if anyone has a reason to cry, it's me. I'm the one that visits a farm, remember?"

"Right." Liz said, sniffling. "I'll be fine."

"Just don't get sunburnt again."

With that, Liz laughed and hugged Cammie. I glanced over at Macey, who was rolling her eyes at her cell phone.

"What's up?" I asked her quietly.

"I'm going to have a fun summer. Stupid politics," she said darkly. I crinkled my nose, and she laughed. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too Macey. This year was actually fun."

"Yeah. Next year you'll get to see Gallagher." Macey said with a smile. "Excited?"

"Yep!"

"VAL!" Zach yelled, and I turned around.

"WHAT?" I yelled back.

"PARENTS."

"WAIT."

Macey laughed as I turned back around. "Nice."

I smiled and gave her a hug. "Text me, okay?" She nodded, and I turned to Bex, giving her a quick hug before she ran off to her waiting limo. Liz left shortly, and Macey's driver arrived seconds later. Cammie and I walked together towards Zach, who was putting his and my stuff in the back of our car.

"Well, I'll see you next year." Cammie said, slowing down before we got too close.

"Yep. I'll probably talk to you over the summer."

"Please do. I'll be on a farm." She raised an eyebrow and I laughed.

"Bye Cammie."

"Bye Val."

I watched as she ran back towards the school, remembering when I had first met her and how we had become friends. Before I turned to help Zach, I looked back at the place I had come to know and love, with all the people that meant the most to me in it. Whatever the next year brought, I'd go with it and learn from it. Most importantly, I knew I wouldn't be alone.

As if proving my point, my brother came up beside me. "Come on Val. Let's go home." Zach put his arm around my shoulders and with one last glace back at Blackthorne, we started towards our car.

**(A/N: Compared to GG3, my story is LAME. lol. If anyone knows when the 4th one is coming out, let me know! :D Sorry for all the dialogue. I'm being lazy. The wishing well thing is made up. But if it's real somewhere, tell me. I'm so going.) **


	29. Chapter 29

I leaned my head against the car window and tried to sleep, but it was pointless. I had learned never to fall asleep in a public place, and the car was no exception. Sleep wouldn't come, no matter how much I wanted to get away from the uncomfortable silence. Zach and I had decided that we wouldn't tell our parents that we knew the truth about what we had come to call "the accident". It's not like it would change things. We wouldn't get our real parents back, so why create the tension? I remembered how I had felt when Zach had told me, and how mad I was when he mentioned that he had known for a while. I shouldn't have been mad at him, I realized. He was just trying to protect me. While I appreciated the thought, I knew that I had to be strong so I could protect myself. I couldn't count on anyone being there for me. I was part of a team, the keyword being _team_. They helped me and I helped them, but each person had to be able to take care of themselves. I turned that over in my mind, and sighed. The lady who I had grown up to know as my mom turned around in her seat and gave me a questioning look, because that's what moms do.

"Just tired," I said, lying, because that's what spies do.

She nodded and turned back around, and Zach caught my eye, which couldn't have been easy, since he was sitting next to me. He gave me a smile to show that we were in this together, and he'd be there whenever I needed him, because that's what brothers do.

I returned the smile, not just because that's what sisters do, but also to let him know that I'd be there for him just as much as he was there for me.

"Try to get some sleep, Val. I'll wake you up if the scenery gets picture worthy." Zach said.

"Promise?" I asked.

He held my gaze for almost a full minute (57 seconds – My brain is getting good at this mental clock stuff!) before nodding, and then, to confirm, saying "Promise."

"Thanks." I turned back to the window, and found that the silence wasn't really uncomfortable anymore. I realized that life would be a lot different now, but different didn't exactly mean bad. Zach and I would always have more clearance than our parents, and many of our conversations would be like the one we just had – they'd have an underlying meaning. Zach didn't tell me to get some sleep; he told me I was safe. He didn't tell me promise to wake me up so I could take a picture – he told me he'd wake me up if anything bad happened. He had told that I could let down my guard for a while, and the world wouldn't end.

He had told me that I needed to trust him, and in that second, I chose to do just that.

I had learned a lot during my semester at spy school, like how to go to a dance with all of my closest friends there and not have any of them see me, and how to lose a tail by ordering a Sprite at the vending machine at the mall. I learned how a bottle of nail polish could be used as a deadly weapon, and how to hack into some of the most secure websites and make everyone think I was supposed to be there.

But most importantly, I learned to trust my instincts and believe in myself. Because sometimes things are real. They aren't made up or temporary. You can't do an in–depth study on it and then replicate it. It just doesn't work that way. You don't go through life knowing everything about your character, and starting over isn't that easy. Some things are real, not just another cover story.

**(A/N: Aww. It's over. *sniff* I've read the third book, so I'll post an epilogue to this using what's in book #3. And then write a sequel. Maybe. [[[BOTH WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS]]] It was great writing for you! Love you all.)**


	30. Chapter 30 Epilogue

**EPILOGUE **

**CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR _Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover_. **

About a month into the summer, I was spending the night at a friend's house, and all the girls there were talking about the past school year. Especially a "super fun" field trip.

And a "super fun" dance.

As they flipped through the photo album, a thought crossed my mind. "Where did you guys get all these?!"

"Oh, the photographer was Molly's uncle. She got copies of every picture taken." One of the girls said.

_Crap._

Sure enough, they came to the picture we (Gallagher girls and Blackthorne boys) had taken. Not surprisingly, someone leaned over it and goes, "VAL! That looks like you! Kinda. How cool is that?! You have another twin!"

I didn't reply, and she continued. "And _that_ looks like Zach! OMG. How amazingly cool is that?"

Sydney turned to look at me. "You weren't like, _there_, were you?"

I hesitated. Fortunately, I was also taking a sip of my Sprite, so it went unnoticed. "Nope. Don't you think I would have said hi?"

"I'd hope so.." she started, but was cut off by another girl, Lauren, squeal.

"O.M.G!! Isn't he like, super hot?!" I glanced over and saw her pointing at the guy, Don I think his name was, that had spiked Cammie's drink, and had almost seriously hurt her (well, almost if I wouldn't have been there). It was a random shot, and the spy in me could tell that he was whispering into his comms unit.

"Hey!" I said, ignoring the question and getting an idea. "Can I scan a couple of these into my computer?"

"No need." Molly said. "Here," she tossed me a CD. "It's got all the pics on it." (Yes, she actually said _pics_. I've been away from normal teenagers for too long.)

Then, sitting right there in Sydney's bedroom, I used the software Liz had put on my laptop to run a facial recognition scan on everyone in every picture, freaked out (slightly) when my and Zach's names came up (I hid those results REAL quick), and sent all the results to Cammie, Liz, Bex, and Macey. I figured they could do _something _with the names and IDs of every "bad" spy involved in the little (big) dance mission.

I was really careful for the rest of the night about what I said, especially when they questioned me about my school. I kind of slipped when we had a pillow fight... Apparently I'm stronger than I thought. I was totally able to pull it off though, with a "Hey! I go to school full time with Zach now, and you guys know how he loves to play fight".

***

**_1 year later_**

**_(told as a kind of flashback)_**

"Val, Zach, we need to talk." I remember Meg looking super serious when Zach and I finally ran inside (We had decided to call our "parents" Meg and Chris, their names, when we were talking about them to each other).

I glanced at Zach, but he didn't seem surprised. At the time, I didn't think anything of it. Zach had a habit of knowing things I didn't. If only I would have realized _just_ what he knew this time. Sadly, I didn't.

"We're moving. To London. For the rest of this year." Meg spoke in sentence fragments, like we couldn't understand.

"Well, Zach and I will be at boarding school, so that won't matter as much for us, right?" Even as I spoke, I knew that I wasn't right.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. We can't have you go to school so far away from us." Meg looked sympathetic.

"What about Zach?!" I had to ask.

"He can still go to Blackthorne."

"Why?" I couldn't see why Zach got to go to school here and I didn't. I do now, but I'm still not happy about it.

"It's not safe for you." Meg said. She paled slightly, realizing that I probably wasn't supposed to know anything about the "safeness" of being here, but I skipped that part. Worst. Mistake. Ever.

I saw that my arguement was pointless. I went and packed. We rented the house out for six months (hardest thing ever; getting all the spy stuff out or turned off), and when we took Zach to Blackthorne (I barely got to say hi to Grant and Jonas, and bye to Zach), we left.

Timmons Academy (yes, for spies - co-ed) wasn't _nearly_ as good as Blackthorne (or Gallagher). The worst part was I couldn't even contact any of the girls (remember those massive jammers? Yeah. They stink. Timmons didn't even have those! I felt totally un-safe. But I guess I was okay, since no one tried to kidnap me). Luckily, I could still hack into American news stations, so I got somewhat of an idea what had happened to Cammie and Macey in Boston, but I wanted details. I remember the answer hitting me.

Zach.

As I sat there with my laptop open, I really hoped he hadn't changed his password. I tried to think if we'd given him any clue that we (Cammie, Liz, Bex, Macey, and I) knew about it, but I couldn't remember. It didn't matter much though, because Zach is, after all, a spy. A good one. He hadn't changed his password, but all his emails were gone. The trash was empty too. I then resorted to regular means of communication: I signed out of Zach's email and into mine, and then sent him an email saying that I wanted details.

This is what I got, twenty minutes later:

_Val. I miss you too. I'm sure the guys at Blackthorne do as well. Macey's fine, and so is Cammie. I'll keep them safe, don't worry. I'm glad you're not here. Sorry sis, but it's for the better. You'll see why at Christmas. I'll visit you there. _

_-Z _

I stared at the screen for a long time, trying to decode what he was saying. In the end, all I got was that Zach wasn't at Blackthorne, and things weren't going too well at Gallagher.

***

Those two things haunted me all year, because even when I met up with Cammie and Bex during break, saw Zach at Christmas, and went back to Gallagher with the girls for the second sememster, things never felt completely right. There was always that little nagging feeling that someone (particularly Zach) wasn't telling me something. But that's a whole different story; one that started in December. Cammie suggested that I practiced my report writing, so I might as well do it about this... experience. (By the way, do me a favor, and _don't_ read this if I may end up working for you one day... That means everyone with initials; CIA, FBI, MI5, MI6, and everyone else. Thanks! -Valerie Goode)

**(A/N: Okay, so here's the scoop on what my psycho crazy brain is deciding to do: This epilogue is in two parts; part one wraps up the picture part of my fanfic. Part two pushes you to read GG3, and gives you a hint about the sequel. It goes GG1, GG2, (that's sophomore year), then NJACS (like an extra year between sophomore and junior year), then GG3 (first semester of junior year), [the sequel to NJACS, which will be like the second semester of junior year], and then the second half of the epilogue, which happens the summer after junior year and kind of looks back on everything, because the content in it is happening the summer BEFORE junior year. **

**Makes sense? Message me if it doesn't, and I'll explain. **

**But I am writing a sequel, I already have my idea!! :D It may take a while though, because I'm going to try to have at least a couple chappies written before I post, just so I for sure finish it. And I'm going to do NaNoWriMo in November, soo things may get slow around then. But we'll see. Heart you ALL. I mean it. Keep checking my profile for updates.) **


	31. SEQUEL shameless self promotion

**(A/N: Hey loves. I wanted to make sure you all knew that I'm working on the sequel to this story now. It's called Best Friends are Perfect Backup. So…go read it! Please? And maybe review? There will be virtual cupcakes on my profile page as an incentive. Good deal, huh? Yeah, thought so. **

**There's also a Harry Potter fanfic up and in progress. It ships Draco & Hermione, so if you're into that, go give it a look-see. **

**Also. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year again, so November things will go dead. I'll have a bunch of stuff out before then though, so do your stuff now so that when I come back, you'll know. Okie? Peaceeeee.) **


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